Developing Your Unique Voice as a Playwright

Abigail Docherty serves as Course Director and co-director of the MSt in Writing for Performance at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), where she combines her expertise in playwriting with innovative approaches to teaching creativity and performance. Her acclaimed career in theater began remarkably early when she wrote her first radio play "Listen to my Inside Mind" for BBC Radio 4 at age 15, and has since flourished with notable achievements including winning the 2012 Pearson Bursary Writer in Residence at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow. Her children's play "One Thousand Paper Cranes" earned Best Scottish Contribution to Drama at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2011 and has been produced globally, while her play "Sea and Land and Sky," based on World War I nurses' oral histories, won the 2010 National Open-Stage Playwriting Competition and was published by Methuen Drama. Her portfolio includes significant works like "Four Parts Broken" for The National Theatre of Scotland and "Room" at the Tron, alongside numerous radio plays for BBC Radio 4. In her role at Cambridge, she focuses her creative research on amplifying the voices of women and children from high-conflict and war-zone situations, while also leading workshops on business creativity and resilience, making her a powerful voice in both theatrical education and social advocacy through storytelling.