Soy Negra
Juliet Gilkes Romero speaks about her revolutionary parents, starting out as a journalist before switching to playwriting and how her identity as a black woman writer is integral to her writing.
I kind of like, really, you know, realised how much I love storytelling, how much I love words, I was very interested in human stories.
An award winning writer for stage and screen, Juliet is the recipient of the 2020 Alfred Fagon Award for Best New Play with The Whip, the Roland Rees Bursary 2019, (named in honour of the co-founder of the Alfred Fagon Award) and the BBC World Service Alexander Onassis Research Bursary. She is currently commissioned by Synergy Theatre Project, Donmar Warehouse, Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Her plays include; The Gift a retelling of Medea filmed for Jermyn Street Theatre’s 15 Heroines of Greek Tragedy season 2020, The Whip at the RSC’s Swan Theatre 2020, Day of The Living as part of RSC’s Mischief Festival 2018, Upper Cut at the Southwark Playhouse 2015, At The Gates of Gaza, Birmingham Repertory Theatre & tour, winner of the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain Best Play Award 2009 and Bilad Al-Sudan at the Tricycle Theatre (now Kiln) as part of its 2006 season dealing with genocidal conflict in Darfur.
Screen and audio includes; Soon Gone; A Windrush Chronicle co-produced by Sir Lenny Henry’s production company Douglas Road and the Young Vic Theatre, and One Hot Summer broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Juliet’s earlier work as a BBC foreign affairs reporter and producer for BBC World Service Radio and BBC World TV saw her reporting from countries including Ethiopia, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
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