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Ellie Keel

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Ellie Keel is a theatre producer, writer and founder and director of the Women's Prize for Playwriting.

Early life and education

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Keel studied Modern Languages (German and Italian) at Brasenose College at Oxford University and graduated in 2014.[1] After graduating she worked at the Oxford Playhouse as a drama officer and started her journey of wanted to support emerging theatre artists, noticing no student work was showcased in the local theatres.

She started producing smaller shows in Oxford as a freelance and managed to bring a few all the way to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. At the same time Keel worked for Opera Up close, for their touring productions and all these experiences led her to create her own production company in 2019.[2]

Career

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Producer

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Keel collaborated in the creation of the LGBTQ+ youth charity Just Like Us in 2017, directed by Laura Mackay.

In 2018 Keel produced Alchymy, an Oxford-based festival for young theatre-makers, giving them a space to showcase their work, based at North Wall.[3] The Festival was programmed in collaboration with Ria Parry and John Hoggarth, the co-directors of North Wall.

In 2019 she brought the idea of the Women's Prize for Playwriting to Paines Plough Artistic Directors Charlotte Bennett and Katie Posner when meeting them at the Fringe, to support female playwrights, under-represented in the theatre world. The Prize launched at the end of that same year.

Keel is leading on all organisational aspects of the prize, with Paines Plough supporting her in producing and programming the Prize's winning plays.

She also launched Ellie Keel Productions (EKP) in 2019, supporting new plays and playwrights produce their work across the UK and internationally, live or digitally.[4]

EKP has been executive producer for many shows, among which:[5]

  • Hotter and Fitter by Mary Higgins and Ell Potter (Soho Theatre)
  • Collapsible by Margaret Perry (VAULT Festival, HighTide's Disruption Festival, Dublin Fringe and Bush Theatre)
  • Anna Bella Eema by Lisa D’Amour (Arcola Theatre)
  • Callisto: a queer epic by Hal Coase (Pleasance, Edinburgh & Arcola Theatre)
  • Mrs Dalloway by Hal Coase (Arcola Theatre)
  • Last Show Before We Die by Mary Higgins and Ell Potter (Roundabout @ Summerhall, Edinburgh 2023)
  • Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz by Nathan Queeley-Dennis (Roundabout @ Summerhall, Edinburgh, Royal Court Theatre, UK National Tour)
  • An Interrogation by Jamie Armitage (Summerhall, Edinburgh 2023, Hampstead Theatre)
  • SAP by Rafaella Marcus (Roundabout @ Summerhall, Edinburgh 2022, Soho Theatre & UK National Tour)

EKP also produces digital work, famously the series Written on the Waves in collaboration with 45 North, which started in 2020 as a remote project during the COVID-19 pandemic. For its first season the platform released as one of the works, A Passion Play by Margaret Perry, recorded between Galway, Shropshire, Stratford-upon-Avon, and London, with Nicola Coughlan in the role of Birdie and Hannah Bristow as Sam.[6] Written on the Waves second season, in 2021, consisted of six audio plays by writers Tabby Lamb, Danusia Samal, Eva Scott, Dessa, Ava Wong Davies, Nicola T. Chang, and Abi Zakarian.[7]

In 2024 Keel won the Producer of the Year in The Stage Awards, becoming the youngest ever to win in this category.[8]

Writer

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In April 2024 HQ, part of HarperCollins, published Keel's first novel, The Four, a dark academia thriller.[9] She says to have a very eclectic literary inspiration, from The Brontës, to Emily Dickinson, to Kazuo Ishiguro, to Donna Tartt. In an interview Keel stated she is already working on the draft of her second novel a murder mystery/family saga set in Cornwall.[9]

References

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  1. ^ "Team - The Women's Prize for Playwriting". 2022-11-22. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
  2. ^ "#NWConnect Podcast: Ellie Keel, Producer". The North Wall, Oxford. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  3. ^ "Alchymy Festival". Exeunt Magazine. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
  4. ^ "About us – Ellie Keel Productions". Retrieved 2024-09-25.
  5. ^ "About us – Ellie Keel Productions". Retrieved 2024-09-25.
  6. ^ "Atticist | A PASSION PLAY". atticist. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  7. ^ Writer, Staff (2021-05-13). "Written on The Waves Announces Second Season". Theatre Weekly. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  8. ^ ElizabethC (2024-01-29). "Ellie Keel Productions, producer for Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz, wins The Stage Awards 2024: Producer of the Year". Royal Court. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
  9. ^ a b "Q&A: debut novelist Ellie Keel". Bookbrunch. 2024-09-25. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
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