Allston James' FIRST STONE FROM THE MOON Announced as Runner-up For Windsor Branagh New Drama Award

'First Stone From the Moon,' a surreal drama set in a Yorkshire pub and the Outer Hebrides, is among Runners-Up for the 18th Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing. The three Finalists and six Runners-up were chosen from 220 entries from 14 countries.

Celebrating its 50th year, Windsor Fringe is the second oldest festival in the U.K. after Edinburgh's. Veteran dramatists-filmmakers Roger Mitchell (Notting Hill, Persuasion) and Joan Lane (The King's Speech) judged short-listed submissions. The three Finalist are J. P. Heaps, Andrew Turner, and John Wolfson.

"I originally envisioned 'First Stone From the Moon' as a fairly conventional drama," Allston James says, "but it insisted on sailing into the waters of magical realism. I set these characters down in a rural pub and asked myself, 'what if?' and that led me to the Outer Hebrides, which have long fascinated me. This is a story of lost love and how it might revisit the heart years after the fact."

James' has twice won the British Theatre Challenge, in 2015 and 2017, sponsored by Sky Blue Theatre, and is three-time recipient of the William Broyles Award for Distinguished Playwriting (U.S). His short film, 'Negative Is, Negative Does,' was recently produced by London's Mama Quilla Productions. In February Tablespoon Theatre in Glasgow produced a digitalized film of his "Small Time Payback." He and his partner Rachel divide time between California and New York.