Sol B River

Sol B River (born 2 October) is an English writer, director, producer and actor best known for his theatre productions.

Biography Born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, of (Jamaican) parentage, he was introduced as Writer in Residence (1994–96) to the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, by artistic director Jude Kelly after writing Moor Masterpieces as his first commissioned production.

In 1996, River received rave reviews for his first London production To Rhatid, The play had failed to receive a production in Britain.

In 1998, River Plays 1, which includes "Moor Masterpieces", "To Rhatid" and "Unbroken", was published by Oberon Books, London, as part of their Modern Playwrights series, making Sol B River the first living black writer to be published by Oberon.

A further collection of River's work was published as River Plays 2 by Oberon Books. a piece that saw dancers perform to spoken word. 48/98, commissioned by Talawa Theatre Company for the Zebra Crossing 2 season, was performed at The Lyric Studio in 1998, directed by Ben Thomas, and was the recipient of the Barclays Extra Performance Award.

In 1998, River directed Brace Yourself, a dance documentary on RJC for Channel 4.

In 1999, he directed the award-winning short film The Bitterest Pill starring Radio 1 DJ Sara Cox.

In 2001, River directed the documentary Glass Ceiling for Channel Four, featuring Treva Etienne, Clarke Peters, Ricco Ross, Rodney Charles and Kolton Lee.

For BBC Radio 4, he has written Making Waves (2000), Walk Against Fear (2000) with James Meredith and Drive On (2002).

In 2003, he wrote and was associate director for Two Tracks & Text Me, West Yorkshire Playhouse.

In 2005–06, he became associate director at the Contact Theatre in Manchester.