Harnessing Queer Joy

with James Ley

A lot of James Ley’s plays have started out as jokes that he’s taken too far, sometimes all the way to production. The man who falls in love with his car, the office worker who goes to a gay sex party. There’s something about plucking an idea from the ridiculous and taking it seriously, that can make for really liberated, alive work. James is convinced that you have something ridiculous going on in your subconscious that you need to listen to and he wants to help.

Join James for a practical playwriting workshop exploring boundary pushing, joyous queer theatre. By the end of the session the participants will have a brand new idea for a queer play that they can take further if they dare. The workshop is an exploration of James’s belief that too much, too risky or too weird is a great place to start.

ARTIST BIO
James Ley is a playwright and screenwriter living in Glasgow. His plays include Wilf (Traverse Theatre), Ode to Joy (Stories Untold, Summerhall), Love Song To Lavendar Menace (Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, Summerhall, SoHo Playhouse, New York), Emma and Gill (Catherine Wheels, Lung Ha), I Heart Maths (A Play, A Pie and a Pint), and Spain (Glasgay!, Citizens Theatre). Ode to Joy which James wrote and directed, won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival 2022. James was Writer on Attachment to National Theatre of Scotland in 2022. He was selected for the 2019 Edinburgh International Film Festival Talent Lab, and the 2019 Stowe Story Labs in Vermont, USA. His feature adaptation of Love Song to Lavender Menace is currently in development, produced by John McKay/Compact Pictures, funded by the Scottish Film Talent Network.