The Road to Huntsville (NHB Modern Plays)

The Road to Huntsville by Stephanie Ridings is a short play about a writer researching women who fall in love with men on death row, who then finds herself crossing the line. The play is taken from Women Centre Stage; a collection of eight short plays, commissioned and developed as part of the Women Centre Stage Festival, that together demonstrate the range, depth and richness of women's writing for the stage. Selected by Sue Parrish, Artistic Director of Sphinx Theatre, these plays offer a wide variety of rewarding roles for women, and are perfect for schools, youth groups and theatre companies to perform. Other writers included in the collection include Winsome Pinnock, Timberlake Wertenbaker and April De Angelis.

Stephanie Ridings is a writer and performer based in the West Midlands. The Road to Huntsville received a Bitesize commission in 2015; after opening at the Edinburgh Fringe 2016 and winning an Arts Voice award, the work toured throughout 2017. Her recent and most notable work has been Unknown Male, Birmingham REP, which was the winner of the Peter Brook/Mark Marvin award. Her first major script, Me, Mum & Dusty Springfield, enjoyed a sell-out Edinburgh Festival and went on to be supported by The Lowry (Salford) and tour nationally. She has been Artist in Residence at Contact Theatre (Manchester) and has been commissioned to write for a range of companies including Women and Theatre, Birmingham REP's Learning and Participation, Corby Young Actors at the Core at Corby and a radio play for Cotesbach Trust, Leicestershire.