A FORMER student of Burnt Mill School, Alan Hall, has had his fourth short radio play aired on local radio. BBC Essex broadcast Something Blue between 8pm and 9pm this Thursday (20 July) during Rob Jelly’s Show. 

Alan was born and brought up in Harlow, living here for 25 years and attending Burnt Mill in the 1970’s, before moving to Bishop’s Stortford with his wife, Jude.

Something Blue is just 8 minutes long. “But, in this short time, the story twists and turns from a couple having a leisurely walk through the park the day after a wedding, to an ending that none of them could have expected !”, says Alan. 

Something Blue follows the success of Alan’s first three radio plays on BBC Essex – two about homelessness (drawing on his career in social housing as Director of Housing and Communities for Epping Forest Council, until he retired) – and another, quite different, about a history teacher who ends up having a personal dance by a former pupil in an adult male dancing club !

Two of Something Blue’s professional actors also come from the local area.  Sean Carrington lives in Thorley, Bishop’s  Stortford.  Sean became a professional actor later in life, recently graduating from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and now has a wide performance experience including in classical and contemporary theatre, films and musical theatre.  Isabel M. Patterson lives in Ware. Isabel trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and has performed in a range of stage productions and worked extensively as a screen actor on over 45 films, as well as appearing in an episode of Midsomer Murders. Her recent credits include a supporting role in the feature film The Last Time You Saw Me and a guest role in the TV adaptation of Charlotte Link’s bestselling crime novel The Search.

Alan has recently set up Nurturing Productions, a small theatre production company to help nurture local playwrights and actors from East Herts and West Essex.  He’s been very busy recently.  One of his plays, Crimson Eyes – about a street homeless woman – explains her journey from a stable life to homelessness, and what it’s like, is being made into a short on-line film.  

He is also adapting the same play in to a Walking Play.  Using the Walking Plays App, users will be able to walk along a pre-determined route in London and, using their smartphone and headphones, walk in Phoebe’s shoe, listening to her story along the way – starting where she sleeps with other street-homeless folk, and walking to where she gets a cup of coffee every night, referring to points of interest along the way.  

For his latest project, Alan is writing a “jukebox” musical, re-imagining the songs of a leading artist and blending them into a contemporary story. “Think Oliver, meets Mamma Mia” said Alan.

More information about Alan’s work can be found at alanhall.one