Join us for the Episode Six of our Plymouth 400 CONVERSATIONS series on PACTV (Plymouth Area Community Television)! The program will air on April 8th and 15th at 7:30PM on Comcast channel 13 and Verizon channel 43 in the towns of Plymouth, Duxbury, Kingston, and Pembroke. After the program airs, you can view the episode here.
Our guests for Episode 6 are Stephan Delbos, the first Poet Laureate of Plymouth, MA, Marianne van Velzen, Poet Laureate of Leiden, and Laura Horton, Plymouth UK Laureate of Words.
Stephan Delbos is an internationally renowned poet, playwright translator, editor and literary scholar. He is the author of the poetry chapbook In Memory of Fire, and the poetry collections Light Reading and Small Talk. His play Chetty’s Lullaby, about trumpet legend Chet Baker, was produced in San Francisco in 2013. His play Deaf Empire, about the Czech composer Smetana, was produced by the Prague Shakespeare Company in 2017. His scholarly work includes the book The New American Poetry and Cold War Nationalism forthcoming from Palgrave. Stephan was born and raised in downtown Plymouth, where views of the harbor, Cape Cod Bay and beyond have always inspired his writing. He is honored to have been chosen as Plymouth’s first Poet Laureate, and has been using this platform to inspire the town, foster community, facilitate creativity and promote Plymouth globally.
Marianne van Velzen has written for as long as she can remember. It started with (a lot) of diaries, then short stories and poems. Very romantic poems to start with. In 2014 she published a book with 15 fables for adults. Marianne not only writes, she has her own company as a coach, trainer and mediator called ‘Wisselland,’ meaning: ‘change country.’ In her poems and in her daily work, Marianne likes to change place and look from another perspective. There you find the connection and room for new possibilities. In 2018 Marianne was elected as “Stadsdichter van Leiden” (the Poet Laureate of Leiden) and loving it since.
Laura Horton is a playwright and screenwriter. In 2021 she took over as the Plymouth UK Laureate of Words as the first woman and playwright. In this two-year role, she will be writing about the city, teaching and co-convening events. She is an artistic associate of The Space, which supports arts organizations and artists to develop work and reach audiences online. Laura is a 2017 SoHo Theatre Writer’s Lab alumni. Her plays include Giddy Tuppy, The Space, ONCOMM winner, 2020; A Summer of Birds, Plymouth Fringe, Toast of the Fringe winner, 2020; Labyrinth Diet (full-length) The Space, 2020; Labyrinth Diet short, Arcola Theatre 2019; This I Believe, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Exeter Phoenix, 2019. In 2020 she wrote and produced her first film, A Summer of Birds, for Plymouth Fringe, and the film won the toast of the Fringe Award.
