As a writer Helens work was first performed in 1987 after winning a song writing competition. The song was performed by over two hundred as part of a huge concert. Since then Helen continued to write, in most genres going! Her poetry was recognised in the late 1990's when she was first published in an anthology of poetry entitled "A Quiet Storm". This was soon followed by Helen getting her own column in "Maidstone Magazine", a monthly magazine which had a distribution of 64, 000 households across Maidstone and the surrounding area. She went on to study creative writing as part of her degree course and a number of her plays were performed at the university. Since then she has written a full length plays and films (click on watch films to view) in addition to working as script supervisor on films. Read below for more details.

 

Performed Play Scripts

Play Title	Venue Performed	Director	Year	Notes
Victorian Shorts	Festival of Christmas, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard	Richard Stride	2008	A series of short plays are currently being complied for this huge annual event. http://www.christmasfestival.co.uk/
Friends for Life	Millfield Theatre, London	Helen Oakleigh	2008	This play is on this 1st and 2nd August 2008 at The Millfield Theatre. More info can be found above.
Cinderella	SHHS Theatre, Hampstead, London	Helen Oakleigh	2007	Drama school shortened version of the classic tale adapted by Helen Oakleigh.
1664	Chichester Festival Theatre	Michael Shannon	2002	Commision based on poets during English Civil War.
Schools Out	Mayfield School Theatre	Helen Oakleigh	2002	Children's musical (all narrative, lyrics and music written by Helen Oakleigh).
Hey Dollface!	Wiltshire Studio	Helen Oakleigh	2001	Comedy set in a toy box exploring childrens misconcieved view of pop stars.
Talent	Mayfield School Theatre	Helen Oakleigh	2001	Children's play based around real lives and stories.
Driver	Wiltshire Studio	Suzi Marsh	2001	Based around two brothers and the effects of violence.
The Rolling Pin	Wiltshire Studio	Ben Stevens	2000	Surreal/ naughty comedy based in an office.
Perfect match	Wiltshire Studio	Russell Halford	1999	Surreal comedy about dating set in  womb!

Film

Helen is currently on pre-production on a feature film she has written to be shot next year with a working title of "Parallel Worlds". More news to follow...

In November 2006 a short film Helen wrote based on A Midsummer Night's Dream was filmed. It was called A Midsummer Nightmare and based on the characters of Titania, Oberon and the Indian boy. This is availble to view for free either by clicking on the watch films page or by going to,  http://newmedia.ndtc.org/wayne/video_films.html

 

 Still from shoot of "A Midsummer Nightmare"

Richard Stride in the role of Oberon (pictured).

 

 

 

 

 

In 2002/ 2003 "Roundabout" was produced. Written by Helen Oakleigh dealing with social issues such as teenage pregnancy. World premier was on Friday 6th May 2005 as part of "tHE eND oF tHE pIER iNTERNATIONAL fILM fESTIVAL". It was competing against films from around the world for "Best Short Drama Award". See gallery for pictures and shopping cart to buy a copy.

Poetry

Published poetry includes "Lost" as part of the anthology titled "A Quiet Storm" 1999. Poem about loosing someone you love.

Magazine

Helen currently writes for http://www.uktheatre.net/ . Visit the website to read reviews by Helen and other authors.

Helen had her own column in Maidstone Magazine 1998-1999. Full page column reporting on the night life and local events in and around Maidstone. Focused on night clubs. Distribution to 64,000 households.

General

Above is examples of work either performed or published. However Helen is always working on new narratives and is currently focusing on scripts. She has a number of completed plays and film scripts and of course a number of working scripts. Helen also works as a script supervisor on films. For information or to contact Helen please email helenoakleigh@hotmail.com