Dr Silva Semerciyan

Personal statement

Silva is a Senior Lecturer in Drama at Bath Spa University and an award-winning playwright. She is the module leader for ‘Writing and Directing for Performance 1’ (writing) and ‘Writing and Directing for Performance 2’ (directing). She is also a module tutor for ‘Building the Ensemble’ and ‘Making Performance 2’.

Her research explores representations of women in dramatic writing and the impact of historical trauma on Armenian feminism. Her PhD at the University of East Anglia investigated playwriting by Armenian women in the Western diaspora and included a trilogy of her own original plays: Zada the Influencer, Beirut and The Tomorrow Woman.

She has worked on devised community theatre projects for the Young Vic, Bristol Old Vic and Theatre Royal Bath. In 2016, she wrote Under a Cardboard Sea for 100 young company performers to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Bristol Old Vic. The Light Burns Blue, about the Cottingley Fairies, has been performed internationally by youth and student theatre groups. Her other plays for young people include Witches Can’t Be Burned for National Theatre Connections Festivals 2020 and 2021 and A Quest for Arthur for the National Theatre’s Let’s Play series.

Silva’s awards include The Bruntwood Judges Prize for Przewalski’s Horses, The William Saroyan Prize for Another Man’s Son and Best New Play at the Brighton Fringe Festival for Gather Ye Rosebuds. Her Masters thesis play at the University of Birmingham, I and the Village, went on to be a finalist for the Bruntwood Prize and an OffWestEnd Award for Best New Play. Her first radio play, Varanasi, was a finalist for a BBC audio drama award.

She has been a BBC fellow and writer on attachment at the Bristol Old Vic, a writer on attachment at the National Theatre Studio, and a member of the Royal Court’s Studio Group. In 2019, she received an Arts Council grant to develop her creative practice in writing fiction for young people.

Academic qualifications

• PhD, “A Nation’s Voice in a Woman’s Words: Female/Feminist Armenian Playwriting in the Western Diaspora”,
• University of East Anglia, 2024.
• MPhil, Playwriting Studies, University of Birmingham, 2010
• BA English with Distinction, University of Michigan, 1997
• HND Musical Theatre Performance, Filton College, 2007
• PGCHE, Bath Spa University, 2025.

Professional memberships

• Society of Authors.

External roles

• Playwriting Mentor, New Views Programme, National Theatre.

Teaching specialisms

• Playwriting 
• Writing for TV and Radio 
• Directing 
• Devising 
• Ensemble Theatre Making 
• Acting 
• Feminist Theatre Practices 
• Staging Contemporary Texts 
• Creating and Staging Solo Performance.