Kwame Kwei-Armah - Work As A Playwright

Work As A Playwright

Kwei-Armah's fifth play, Elmina's Kitchen premiered in May 2003 at the National Theatre, and was shortlisted in the "best new play" category at the 2004 Laurence Olivier Awards. That same year, Kwei-Armah received the Evening Standard Award for the Most Promising New Playwright of 2003. In 2005, Kwei-Armah was nominated for a BAFTA award for the television version of Elmina's Kitchen.

Walter's War, a drama written by Kwei-Armah and based on the wartime experiences of footballer Walter Tull's life, was made by UK TV channel BBC Four and screened on 9 November 2008 as part of the BBC's "Ninety Years of Remembrance" season in November 2008. Kwame also had a cameo role in the film.

Kwei-Armah is a member of the board of the National Theatre and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University in 2008, and in 2009 was a judge for the BBC World Service's International Radio Playwriting Competition. On 28 February 2011, Kwame was named as the new artistic director at Baltimore's Center Stage Theatre, replacing Irene Lewis who served in the position for 19 years. Kwame is no stranger to Center Stage, his play Elmina's Kitchen was staged in 2005, followed by Let There Be Love in 2010, and in 2007 he directed Naomi Wallace's Things of Dry Hours.

He was involved in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six Books, for which he wrote a piece based upon a chapter of the King James Bible.

He is also a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables school children across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres