The School Leaver
McMillan’s first play The School Leaver was inspired studying Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey at secondary school. It follows the conflict between two Black young men about to leave school, their different family backgrounds and where their aspirations lead them eventually. It was submitted to the Royal Court Theatre Young Writer’s Festival, and it was selected and produced in April 1978. The School Leaver was directed by the late Gerald Chapman with a cast that included: Allister Bain, Trevor Laird, Herbert Norville, Isabelle Lucas, Veronica Quilligan, Beverley Michaels, David Ellison, Stephen Fletcher, Jane Wood.
Three-way folded leaflet:
Photo still from The School Leaver featuring L to R: David Ellison, unknown actor, and Trevor Laird.
‘Alternative Publishers’ by Gillian Klein, about the Black Ink Collective’s publishing of young Black writers, Times Educational Supplement, 3 July 1981.