Mojisola Adebayo is a playwright, performer, director, producer, workshop facilitator and lecturer. She has a BA in Drama and Theatre Arts, an MA in Physical Theatre and her PhD is entitled Afriquia Theatre: Creating Black Queer Ubuntu Through Performance (Goldsmiths, Royal Holloway and Queen Mary, University of London). Mojisola trained extensively with Augusto Boal and is an international specialist in Theatre of the Oppressed, often working in locations of crisis and conflict. She has worked in theatre, radio and television, on four continents, over the past 25 years, performing in over 50 productions, writing, devising and directing over 30 plays, and leading countless workshops, from Antarctica to Zimbabwe. Her own authored plays include Moj of the Antarctic: An African Odyssey (Lyric Hammersmith and Ovalhouse, London), Muhammad Ali and Me (Ovalhouse, Albany Theatre, London and UK touring), 48 Minutes for Palestine (Ashtar Theatre and international touring), Desert Boy (Albany Theatre, London and UK touring), The Listeners (Pegasus Theatre, Oxford), I Stand Corrected (Artscape, Ovalhouse, London and international touring) and The Interrogation of Sandra Bland (Bush Theatre, London).
Sudha Bhuchar is an acclaimed actor/playwright/founder of Bhuchar Boulevard. As co-founder of Tamasha, with Kristine Landon-Smith, their landmark work includes A Fine Balance &the award-winning musical Fourteen Songs Two Weddings and a Funeral. Other plays include Child of the Divide (Winner Asian media awards 2018), My Name is.... (also adapted for Radio 4) & The House of Bilquis Bibi (Lorca´s The House of Bernada Alba transposed to Pakistan). Recent commissions are Touchstone Tales (RevolutonArts/Wellcome Collection) and French like Faiza (Radio3 cowritten with Ilana Navaro). Sudha has written and is appearing in her one woman show, Evening Conversations.Acting credits include Khandan (Royal Court /Birmingham Rep),The Village (Theatre Royal Stratford East) and Lions and Tigers (Globe Theatre). TV includes Coronation street, Stella & Noughts and Crosses. Film: Mogul Mowgli, Mary Poppins Returns and Happy New Year Colin Burstead. Sudha was a finalist for BBC Radio 4´s Audio drama awards (2019) for My Son the Doctor (co- written with Saleyha Ahsan) and was awarded Eastern Eye´s ACTA award for her contribution to the Arts. As dramaturg, Sudha recently worked with Nyla Levy on Does My Bomb Look Big in This? and Tuyen Do on Summer Rolls.
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti writes for stage, screen and radio. Her first play Behsharam (Shameless) broke box office records at Soho Theatre and the Birmingham Rep. Behzti (Dishonour) was sensationally closed after protests at the Birmingham Rep in December 2004. Behzti won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the play was then translated into French and did sell-out tours in France and Belgium. Behud (Beyond Belief) was co-produced by Soho Theatre and Coventry Belgrade and shortlisted for the John Whiting Award. Khandan had a sell out run at the Birmingham Rep before transferring to the Royal Court. Her latest play A Kind Of People opened at the Royal Court Downstairs in December 2019.Other credits include Elephant, Birmingham Rep; Dishoom, Rifco/Watford Palace Theatre, Fourteen, Watford Palace Theatre; the feature film Everywhere And Nowhere; DCI Stone, Radio 4; Londonee, Rich Mix; Dead Meat, Channel 4 and An Enemy Of The People (BBC World Service).Her first collection of plays, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti: PLAYS ONE, is published by Oberon Books.She is currently writing screenplays for Moonage Pictures, Cuba Pictures and Martha Stone Productions. She is also adapting Sathnam Sanghera´s Marriage Material for the Birmingham Rep.
Zoe Cooper is a playwright and theatre practitioner. She took the M Phil in Playwrighting at the University of Birmingham and was on the Royal Court Young Writers Programme. She worked as literary assistant at Hampstead Theatre and now works as a freelance dramaturg and theatre education officer. She has written short plays for Nabokov, Theatre503 and the Tristan Bates Theatre. Her play Nativities was produced at Live Theatre in 2012.
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig is an internationally produced playwright whose work has been staged in the United Kingdom at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Trafalgar Studios 2 [West End] and the Unicorn Theatre. In the United States her work has been staged at venues that include the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Theater Club and the Goodman Theatre. Frances' plays have been awarded the Wasserstein Prize, the Yale Drama Series Award (selected by David Hare), an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, the David A. Callichio Award and the Keene Prize for Literature. Her work has been published by Yale University Press, Glimmer Train, Methuen Drama, Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service. Frances was born in Philadelphia, and raised in Northern Virginia, Okinawa, Taipei and Beijing. She received an MFA in Writing from the James A. Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin, a BA in Sociology from Brown University, and a certificate in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre from the Dell´Arte International School of Physical Theatre.
Tim Crouch is a UK theatre artist based in Brighton. He writes plays, performs in them and takes responsibility for their production. He started to make his own work in 2003. Before then he was an actor. Tim works with a number of associates and collaborators to produce his writing. There isn´t a company structure; things and people are brought together when they are needed. The starting process has always been a text written by Crouch. Early work was made in response to a self-generated impulse to tell a story or explore a form. This impulse is still the first motivation but, lately, it´s become slightly more formalized through the involvement of various commissioning theatres and organizations. Tim´s work tours extensively to UK and international venues and festivals.
Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams, MBE, is a poet, playwright & performer, graphic artist & designer. He is a Complete Works poet alumni and facilitates workshops in creative writing where he explores reoccurring themes in his work - Identity, Displacement and Destiny - in accessible, enjoyable ways for participants of all ages and backgrounds. His awards include: Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2009, the Liberty Human Rights Award, The Live Canon International Poetry Prize, The Kent & Sussex Poetry Competition, Magma Poetry Competition, Winchester Poetry Prize, an Arts Council of England Award, a Wellcome Trust Award, A Black British Theatre Award and The Hay Festival Medal for Poetry. In June 2023, He was honoured with an MBE for Services To The Arts. He has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Tate Modern, Louis Vuitton, Chris Ofili, BBC Radio & Television. His poetry books include Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales and Candy Coated Unicorn and Converse published Flipped Eye, The Wire-Headed Heathen by Akashic Books. His plays include Black T-shirt Collection, The 14th Tale, Barber Shop Chronicles and Three Sisters published by Oberon. He founded The Midnight Run (an arts-filled, night-time, urban walking experience.) The Rhythm and Poetry Party (The R.A.P Party) which celebrates poetry & hip hop, and Poetry + Film / Hack (P+F/H) which celebrates Poetry & Film.
James Graham is a multi award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His play This House gained critical acclaim, enjoyed a sell-out run at the National Theatre´s Olivier in 2013 and its 2017 West End revival was Olivier-nominated. It was chosen by popular vote as the best play of the 2010´s by Methuen Drama. James created theatre history when his two plays Ink, about the early days of Rupert Murdoch, and Labour of Love, a romantic political comedy, played in theatres next to each other in the West End in 2017. James won an Olivier award in 2018 for Labour of Love and Ink transferred to Broadway in 2019, receiving six Tony award nominations. James´ play The Vote (Donmar Warehouse) aired in real time on TV in the final 90 minutes of the 2015 polling day and was BAFTA-nominated. His most recent television film, Brexit: An Uncivil War (Channel 4/HBO) is nominated for a 2019 Emmy Award.
Over the past 25 years, Tanika Gupta has written over 25 stage plays that have been produced in major theatres across the UK and has written extensively for BBC Radio drama. Some of her theatre credits include: A Doll´s House (Lyric Hammersmith) Red Dust Road - adaptation of Jackie Kay´s memoir (NT Scotland); Bones (Central School for Speech and Drama) Hobson´s Choice (Manchester Royal Exchange); Lions And Tigers (Globe Theatre); A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Hull Truck Theatre); Midsummer Night´s Dream (Globe Theatre -Dramaturg); Anita and Me (Birmingham Rep); Love N Stuff (Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Empress (Royal Shakespeare Company); Wah! Wah! Girls - A British Bollywood Musical (Sadler´s Wells); Mindwalking (Bandbazi Theatre); Great Expectations (Watford Palace Theatre/English Touring Theatre); Meet The Mukherjees (Bolton Octagon Theatre); White Boy (National Youth Theatre/Soho Theatre); Sugar Mummies (Royal Court Theatre); Gladiator Games (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); Hobson´s Choice (Young Vic); Fragile Land (Hampstead Theatre); Inside Out (Clean Break); Sanctuary, Brecht´s The Good Woman Of Setzuan and The Waiting Room (National Theatre); Skeleton (Soho Theatre); and A River Sutra (Indoza). Some of her Television credits include: Doctors, London Bridge, All About Me, EastEnders, Grange Hill, The Bill, Flight, Banglatown Banquet, Our Lives As Animals ,The Fiancee and Bideshi. Some of her Radio credits include: Trumpet, A Passage To India, Death of a Matriarch, The Home and The World, Emma, Writing The Century, Bindi Business, Song Of The Road, The God Of Small Things, Baby Farming and Ibsen´s A Doll´s House. In 2008 Tanika was awarded an MBE for Services to Drama and in 2016 was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Tanika has an honorary doctorate in the Arts from Chichester University and is an Honorary Fellow at Rose Bruford College and Central School of Speech and Drama. She won the James Tait Black award in 2018 for her play Lions and Tigers.
Hannah Khalil is currently Resident Writer at Shakespeare´s Globe. Henry VIII is part of their 2022 summer season and her critically acclaimed re-telling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Fir Tree which premiered in 2021, will return for their 2022 winter season. Hannah´s other theatre commissions include new work for the RSC, Soho Theatre, The Kiln and Mosaic/Fishamble. Previous work for stage includes A Museum in Baghdad, which opened at the Royal Shakespeare Company´s Swan Theatre in 2019 directed by Erica Whyman, Interference for The National Theatre of Scotland, The Scar Test for Soho Theatre and Scenes from 68* Years for the Arcola. Her work is published by Methuen.Hannah has also written numerous radio plays, including The Unwelcome, Last of the Pearl Fishers and The Deportation Room all for BBC Radio 4. Television work includes multiple episodes of the Channel 4 drama Hollyoaks. Her short film, The Record, won the Tommy Vine screenplay award at the Underwire film festival, and went on to be made. It was also selected at London Palestine Film Festival. Hannah was named Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University in 2021 and is a Creative Fellow of the Samuel Beckett Archive for 2021/2022.
Morgan Lloyd Malcolm is a playwright and screenwriter. Her play Emilia (Shakespeare´s Globe, 2018) transferred to the West End the following year. Her play Belongings premiered at the Hampstead Theatre and Trafalgar Studios (2011) and was shortlisted for the Charles Wintour Most Promising Playwright Award and her play The Wasp at Hampstead Theatre also transferred to Trafalgar Studios in 2015. She has co-written several acclaimed immersive site-specific plays with Katie Lyons, produced by Look Left Look Right, including You Once Said Yes, Above and Beyond and Once Upon a Christmas. She wrote and performed comedy for several years as part of the comedy group Trippplicate. She was part of the writing team for four of the Lyric Hammersmith´s pantomimes from 2009-2012 and wrote (solo) the Bolton Octagon´s Christmas plays for 2013 and 2014. She has written two large community plays for the Old Vic New Voices: Platform and Epidemic. She formed Terrifying Women with Abi Zakarian, Sampira and Amanda Castro in 2021 with an aim to producing more horror in theatre. She is also working in Film and Television; her film adaptation of her play The Wasp is due out in 2023 and her TV adaptation of Josephine Hart´s Damage is also due out on Netflix in 2023.
Alistair McDowall grew up in the North East of England. Plays include: The Glow (Royal Court Theatre 2022); all of it (Royal Court Theatre 2020); Zero for the Young Dudes! (National Theatre Connections 2017); X (Royal Court Theatre 2016); Pomona (RWCMD/Gate 2014; Orange Tree Theatre/Royal Exchange/National Theatre 2014/5); Talk Show (Royal Court Theatre 2013); Brilliant Adventures (Royal Court Young Writers´ Festival 2012; Royal Exchange, Manchester and Live Theatre, Newcastle 2013) and Captain Amazing (Live Theatre, Newcastle and Edinburgh Fringe 2013; UK tour 2014). He is a MacDowell fellow, and a recipient of the Harold Pinter Commission. His work has been translated and produced internationally.
Vinay Patel´s debut play, True Brits, opened at the Edinburgh Fringe 2014, before transferring to the Bush Theatre and Vault Festival. His latest play, An Adventure, ran at the Bush in late 2018. His first piece for television, Murdered By My Father, won the Royal Television Society award for Best Single Drama and was nominated for three BAFTAs. Vinay was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit for his work.He has since written for Paines Plough, ITV, Channel 4 and the BFI, as well as contributing to the bestselling collection of essays, The Good Immigrant. Most recently, Vinay wrote for the 11th and 12th series of Doctor Who - receiving a Hugo nomination - and is developing further projects for TV, theatre and film.
Lucy Prebble lives in London. Her smash-hit play, Enron, transferred to the West End and Broadway in 2010 after sell out runs at both the Royal Court and Chichester Festival Theatre. In addition to the huge critical acclaim it has received, Enron also won the award for best New Play at the prestigious TMA Theatre Awards, and was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Award 2009. Lucy created the TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl, starring Billie Piper, which enjoyed three series and was sold to Showtime, the major US channel famed for its daring dramas. Lucy won the prestigious George Devine Award 2004 for her outstanding debut play The Sugar Syndrome in May 2004, followed by the TMA Award for Best New Play in October 2004. She also won the 2004 Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright. Lucy was also nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer Award at the Olivier Awards 2004, shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award 2003 and nominated for the prestigious Evening Standard Charles Wintour Most Promising Playwright Award 2003.
Philip Ridley was born and grew up in the East End of London. He studied painting at St Martin´s School of Art. He has written many highly regarded and hugely influential stage plays: the seminal The Pitchfork Disney (now published as a Methuen Modern Classic), The Fastest Clock in the Universe (winner of a Time Out Award, the Critics´ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, and the Meyer-Whitworth Prize), Ghost from a Perfect Place, Vincent River (nominated for the London Festival Fringe Best Play Award), the highly controversial Mercury Fur, Leaves of Glass, Piranha Heights (nominated for the WhatsOnStage Mobius Award for Best Off West End Production), Tender Napalm (nominated for the London Fringe Best Play Award), Shivered (nominated for the OffWestEnd Best New Play Award), Dark Vanilla Jungle (winner of an Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award), Radiant Vermin (now published as a Methuen Modern Classic), Tonight With Donny Stixx, Karagula (nominated for the OffWestEnd Best New Play Award), The Beast of Blue Yonder, The Poltergeist (winner of the OffWestEnd OnComm Award for Best Live Streamed Play) and Tarantula; plus several plays for young people (collectively known as The Storyteller Sequence): Karamazoo, Fairytaleheart, Moonfleece (named as one of the 50 Best Works About Cultural Diversity by the National Centre for Children´s Books), the seminal Sparkleshark (the first of the Connections Festival plays - all written for young people - to be staged professionally by the National Theatre), and Brokenville; also, Feathers in the Snow (shortlisted for the Brian Way Best Play Award).
Christopher Shinn (b. 1975) is an American playwright from New York. His plays include Now or Later (shortlisted for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play), Dying City (Pulitzer Prize finalist), Where Do We Live (winner of an Obie in Playwriting), An Opening In Time, Teddy Ferrara, Picked, Four, What Didn't Happen, On the Mountain, Other People, and The Coming World. His adaptation of Hedda Gabler premiered on Broadway (American Airlines Theatre), and he has written short plays for Naked Angels (Democracy Project), the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, the Bush Theatre (Sixty-Six Books), and Headlong (Decade). His work has been premiered by Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, the Vineyard Theatre, South Coast Rep, the Goodman, the Royal Court, and the Soho Theatre, and later produced around the world. Christopher Shinn´s awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting, a grant from the NEA/TCG Residency Program, an Obie in Playwriting and the Robert Chesley Award.
Simon Stephens began his theatrical career in the literary department of the Royal Court Theatre, where he ran its Young Writers' Programme. His plays for theatre include Bluebird (Royal Court Theatre) Herons (Royal Court Theatre, 2001); Port (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, 2002); One Minute (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 2003 and Bush Theatre, London, 2004); Christmas (Bush Theatre, 2004); Country Music (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 2004); On the Shore of the Wide World (Royal Exchange Theatre and National Theatre, London, 2005); Motortown (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, 2006); Pornography (Tricycle Theatre, London, 2009); Harper Regan (National Theatre, 2008); Sea Wall (Bush Theatre, 2009); Heaven (Traverse Theatre, 2009); Punk Rock (Lyric Hammersmith, London, 2009); The Trial of Ubu (Essen Schauspielhaus/Toneelgroep Amsterdam, 2010); A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky (co-written with David Eldridge and Robert Holman; Lyric Hammersmith, London, 2010); Wastwater (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, 2011); Morning (Lyric Hammersmith, 2012); an adaptation of A Doll's House (Young Vic, 2012); an adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (National Theatre, 2012); Blindsided (Royal Exchange, 2014); and Birdland (Royal Court, 2014). His radio plays include Five Letters Home to Elizabeth (BBC Radio 4, 2001) and Digging (BBC Radio 4, 2003). Awards include the Pearson Award for Best New Play, 2001, for Port; Olivier Award for Best New Play for On the Shore of the Wide World, 2005; and for Motortown German critics in Theater Heute's annual poll voted him Best Foreign Playwright, 2007. His adaptation of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play.
Chris Thorpe is a writer and performer from Manchester, where he has an ongoing association with the Royal Exchange Theatre - work for them includes There Has Possibly Been An Incident and The Mysteries. Other theatre work includes Victory Condition and The Milk of Human Kindness for the Royal Court, Chorus for the Gate Theatre and Hannah, Beowulf and one of Aesop´s Fables for the Unicorn. He also has ongoing collaborations with Rachel Chavkin produced by China Plate (Confrmation/Status), Lucy Ellinson (TORYCORE), Portugal´s malavoadora (Overdrama/House-Garden/Dead End/Your Best Guess) and Hannah Jane Walker (The Oh Fuck Moment/I Wish I Was Lonely) Chris was a founder member of Unlimited Theatre, is an Associate of Live Art/Theatre company Third Angel and has worked frequently with Forest Fringe. Chris also collaborates with Rachel Bagshaw, writing the award-winning The Shape of the Pain, recently adapted for BBC as Where I Go (When I Can't Be Where I Am). He has also worked as a translator, most frequently with Serbian playwright Ugljesa Sajtinac and Belarus Free Theatre. His short film for the Royal Court and the Financial Times about the climate crisis, What Do You Want Me To Say? was released in September 2019. Current work includes the Methuen Climate Commission for the Royal Court, Dying for mala voadora and the National Theatre of Portugal, Tell Me, for HOME Manchester, co-written with Yusra Warsama, a new piece for Nationaltheater Mannheim in collaboration with Javaad Alipoor, Hold Out Your Hand, a play for young performers produced by Scottish company Wonder Fools and the Traverse Theatre, and A Family Business, his next collaboration with Rachel Chavkin. He also works closely with the National Student Drama Festival.
Laura Wade´s plays include The Watsons (Chichester Festival Theatre and Menier Chocolate Factory), Home, I'm Darling (Theatr Clwyd, National Theatre and West End), Posh (Royal Court Theatre and West End), Tipping the Velvet (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Alice (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), Kreutzer vs. Kreutzer (Globe Theatre, Sydney Opera House and Australian tour), Other Hands (Soho Theatre), Colder Than Here (Soho Theatre and MCC Theatre New York), Breathing Corpses (Royal Court Theatre), Catch (Royal Court Theatre, written with four other playwrights), Young Emma (Finborough Theatre), 16 Winters (Bristol Old Vic Basement) and Limbo (Crucible Studio Theatre, Sheffield). Films include The Riot Club. Awards include the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, Critics´ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, the Pearson Best Play Award and the George Devine Award. Laura Wade´s plays have been performed in the UK, USA, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and Mexico.
Anne Washburn's plays include 10 out of 12, Antlia Pneumatica, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, A Devil At Noon, I Have Loved Strangers, The Internationalist, The Ladies, Little Bunny Foo Foo, Mr. Burns, Shipwreck, The Small, an adaption of The Twilight Zone, and transadaptations of Euripides' Orestes & Iphigenia in Aulis. Her work has been produced nationally, and internationally. Awards include a Whiting, a Guggenheim, an Alpert Award, a PEN/Laura Pels award, a NYFA Fellowship, a Time Warner Fellowship, Susan Smith Blackburn finalist twice, and residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo.
Dom O´Hanlon is a director of musical theatre who has over fifteen years of experience directing and working within amateur theatre in the UK and USA. His experience spans university and college productions, summer camp and summer stock, educational and TIE musicals as well as many London and regional amateur theatre societies and companies. He has worked in a range of capacities on productions with amateur performers from ages 6 to 70 in all manners of spaces from traditional theatres to outdoor arenas and converted swimming pools and on a range of work from classic to new musicals. He holds an MA Distinction in Text and Performance from RADA and Birkbeck, University of London, UK. He is currently a Senior Publisher of Plays and Musical Theatre at Methuen Drama.
