The Lovely Bones

Ola is a critically acclaimed and award winning theatre, film, and opera director; based in London. Her work focuses on power, race and injustice. 

She is the winner of the BBC Performing Arts Fellow Award (2015), Genesis Future Director Award (2016), h100 Theatre & Performance Award (2018), Elle list’s ‘50 Game Changers of Now’ (2019) and the Peter Hall Bursary Award (2020). 

Since graduating from Rose Bruford College, with a First Class Honours BA in Theatre Directing, she has worked at a number of prestigious Theatres such: Royal Opera House, Donmar Warehouse, Young Vic, Royal Court, National Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, St. Ann’s Warehouse (Brooklyn New York) and Lunt-Fontane Theatre (Broadway). 

Ola was the International Associate Director of Tina Turner the Musical; creating, casting and directing the productions in London, Hamburg, Broadway and Utrecht alongside Phyllida Lloyd; from 2018 to 2020. 

In 2016 Ola was Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith and Theatre Royal Stratford East. She was an Artistic Associate at the Royal Court Theatre from 2018-2022.

Ola has extensive experience working with new writing. In 2011 she worked at the Finborough Theatre as their Senior Reader and Resident assistant director, which gave her the opportunity to devour plays and assist in programming decisions. Ola then went on to read for the Bush Theatre, Bruntwood prize for playwriting and the George Devine Award for most promising playwright. 

She also has comprehensive experience working with young and vulnerable people. Ola has run workshops, facilitated projects, devised and directed plays, worked as a youth worker, a mentor and led directing materclasses for KS2-KS4, Post-16 and adults. She has worked for the Young Vic, Lyric Hammersmith, Unicorn Theatre, National Theatre, Company 3, the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology, The Acting Studio, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, ALRA, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and RADA. 

Alice Sebold is the author of three #1 bestselling books, including Lucky, and the novels The Almost Moon and The Lovely Bones which, became a major motion picture in 2009. Her work has been translated into more than fifty languages and has appeared in The New York Times and The Guardian, among other publications. Her work is known for its exploration of trauma, grief, and resilience.

Sebold studied at Syracuse University and later earned an MFA from the University of California, Irvine.She is a member of the National Leadership Council for RAINN.org (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). She lives in California.

Bryony Lavery is a playwright whose work includes Frozen, which won the TMA best play award, the Eileen Anderson Central Television award was produced at Birmingham Rep, then the National Theatre, then on Broadway where it was nominated for four Tony awards. Stockholm, for Frantic Assembly, won the Wolff-Whiting award for Best Play of 2008. Beautiful Burnout for The National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly received a Fringe First at Edinburgh, before productions in the UK, New York, Australia and New Zealand. Dirt was nominated for the Charles McArthur award for most outstanding play or musical of 2013, Washington DC. 

Recent work includes: The Believers [Frantic Assembly] Queen Coal [Sheffield Crucible] Treasure Island [National Theatre] 101 Dalmatians [Chichester Festival Theatre] Brideshead Revisited [York Theatre Royal/ETT] Our Mutual Friend [Hull Truck/City of Culture 2017], Balls [One Year Lease/Stages Theatre- Houston and NYC], The Lovely Bones [Birmingham Rep/ UK Tour] and The Book of Dust - La Belle Sauvage [Bridge Theatre]. 

She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature, an honorary Doctor of Arts at De Montford University and an Associate Artist at Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Contains themes of death, loss, paedophilia, rape and murder.  

This amateur production of “The Lovely Bones” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk