Dr David Cottis

Biography

David Cottis is Senior Lecturer in Scriptwriting and Programme Leader for BA Film at Middlesex University.  He received his Ph. D from Birkbeck College.  He is also a theatre director, writer, lyricist, and dramaturg, most recently working with James Martin Charlton on the horror play Black Stone for Just Some Theatre Company.   His five-actor adaptation of Oliver Twist was taken on national tour by the Love and Madness Company, his short plays Cash and Semolina were seen at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and his opera libretto She Stops at Costa's was shortlisted for the English National Opera's 'New Voices' project. He has edited A Dirty Broth and A Ladder of Words, two anthologies of Twentieth-Century Welsh Plays in English for the Parthian Press, and wrote the chapter on Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical.  His book How Stage Playwrights Saved the British Cinema 1930-1956 will be published by Bloomsbury Academic Publishers in 2024. 

Teaching

David teaches scriptwriting across the Film Programme, including the first-year module Story and Aesthetics, and the Second and Third Year Skills Development Module.  He has also taught on the Creative Writing and Animation Programmes.