�鶹Լ�� Writers Feed

�鶹Լ�� Writersroom's Voices 2023 - Scotland Hub

2023-06-27T08:46:42+00:00

All this week we're announcing the 72 writers who have taken part in our six Voices development groups for 2023.

Our third group of Voices writers 2023 are the eleven based out of our Scotland hub. Meet them below and find out more.

Commissioning Executive, Stephanie Fyfe:

"We are thrilled to announce our Voices group from Scotland for 2023! Over the last few months, we’ve been working with 11 writers to help hone their craft skills for TV and develop their unique writing voice and it’s been an absolute pleasure and a privilege to work with such a dedicated and passionate group! We’ve been excited and inspired by the brilliant mix of original ideas and can’t wait to see what they each do next!"

The Voices writers in the 2023 Scotland hub

If you would like any further details on any of the Voices 23 writers, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom team: writersroom@bbc.co.uk

You can find out more about Voices and how to gain a place in the group on our Voices page.

The 2023 �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Voices

Rory D. Bentley

Rory D. Bentley

Represented by Mark Brennan, United Agents

Rory is an award-winning Writer & Director of mixed British-Punjabi heritage from Leicester/Edinburgh. He is currently casting his first feature AMRIT with the BFI after being selected for a coveted place on the �鶹Լ�� Films / BFI / Creative UK iFeatures initiative - the UK’s premier development lab for debut feature films. He is a BAFTA connect member and a recipient of the prestigious John Brabourne Award. His award-winning 16mm independent short film SURPRI-! premiered at BFI London Film Festival 2022 and won ‘Best Super Short’ at the British Short Film Awards.

Rory co-wrote, shot and directed the award-winning 8mm short JAMELLA, starring Jamie Demetriou - which won first prize at the Straight 8 ‘one roll, no editing’ Industry Competition. He has made several other independent & DIY short films which have screened at Academy / BAFTA qualifying film festivals around the world including Edinburgh International Film Festival, Cork Film Festival, Palm Springs International Shortsfest California, British Shorts Berlin & Aesthetica.

Jonny Blair

Jonny Blair

Represented by Robert Taylor & Tom Shepherd, The Artists Partnership

Jonny (he/him) is an emerging Scottish filmmaker from Dumfries & Galloway. His first short film THE GROUNDSMAN starred David O’Hara (The Departed) and screened at festivals worldwide before winning the Best Fiction award at the BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards. After graduating from the filmmaking course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Jonny went on to complete an MA in Directing Fiction at the National Film and Television School.

His NFTS graduation film COME OUT OF THE WOODSstarred Joe Dempsie (Game of Thrones) and was nominated for a Royal Television Society award. As a writer Jonny has been commissioned to develop a six-part drama for MAM TOR (Chloe) and �鶹Լ��. He also recently directed episodes of �鶹Լ�� Scotland’s continuing drama series RIVER CITY and in 2024 he’ll direct his debut feature film WALK WITH ME for Silver Reel (Under the Skin).

Maisie Chan

Maisie Chan

Maisie is a well-known children’s author. Her short script LYCHEES AND BINGO BALLS won �鶹Լ�� Bites (2008) before she rewrote it as a novel – DANNY CHUNG DOES NOT DO MATHS which won multiple awards and was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Awards in 2022.

She was part of Write4 Film (Scottish Film Talent Network), is a B.E.A.T.S fellow (mentor was Emma Reeves) and a member of EAST, a network for East Asian TV screenwriters. She has been in development writer’s rooms for CBeebies and C�鶹Լ��.

Her shortFOLDINGwas part of Sharp Shorts (funded by BFI/Screen Scotland) and has played at festivals in Dublin, London, Glasgow and Berlin. Maisie has written an episode of PIP AND POSY (Magic Light Pictures) and is in talks with a production company hoping to adapt her novel. She is developing a TV drama idea as part of the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Voices programme.

Eliza Gearty

Eliza Gearty

Eliza is a writer based in Glasgow. She is drawn to writing across mediums and telling character-led stories about the impact of socio-political issues on human relationships. Her novella ON THE DOORS, inspired by her experiences as a charity street fundraiser in Glasgow, was published by Speculative Books in 2019. Her debut play ABOUT MONEY was produced by 65% Theatre and staged at Theatre503 and Summerhall in 2022. It won an Edinburgh Fringe Scottish Theatre Award and was shortlisted for the 2022 Saint Andrews Playwriting Award.

Eliza is a graduate of the Soho Theatre’s Writers Lab and a 65% Theatre Associate Artist. Most recently, she was a 2023 Breakthrough Writer in Residence at the Traverse Theatre, where she was supported to develop her play HOME. She is currently working on her first screenplay, a comedy drama about shame, sexuality and the service industry.

Lewis Hetherington

Lewis Hetherington

Represented by Michael Eliot-Finch, Brennan Artists

Lewis is a Glasgow-based playwright and performance maker. His work is rooted in collaboration, storytelling and play. He has won two Fringe First Awards with Analogue Theatre and an Adelaide Fringe Award.

He is co-founder of fieldwork performance, Constellation Points, and an Associate of The PappyShow. He has worked with companies including National Theatre of Scotland, Platform, Lyceum Theatre, Traverse and Grid Iron. He has created performances in castles, climbing arenas and swimming pools, as well as theatres all over the world, including venues and festivals in Australia, Canada, China, USA, Singapore, Japan and more.

Lewis often makes performances with community groups and has a real passion for uncovering stories which need to be heard, using creativity to empower people to find their voice. He also makes a lot of work for children and young people and finds their capacity for imagination and honesty as audience members hugely inspiring.

James Ley

James Ley

Represented by Kelly Knatchbull, Sayle Screen

James is a playwright and screenwriter living in Glasgow. His plays include WILF (Traverse Theatre), ODE TO JOY (Stories Untold, Summerhall), LOVE SONG TO LAVENDER MENACE (Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, Summerhall, SoHo Playhouse, New York), SALLY (A play, a pie and a pint) EMMA AND GILL (Catherine Wheels, Lung Ha), I HEART MATHS (A play, a pie and a pint), and SPAIN (Glasgay!, Citizens Theatre).

James’ play ODE TO JOY which he wrote and directed won a fringe first at the Edinburgh Festival 2022. James was Writer on Attachment to National Theatre of Scotland in 2022. He was selected for the 2019 Edinburgh International Film Festival Talent Lab, and the 2019 Stowe Story Labs in Vermont, USA. James’ feature adaptation of Love Song to Lavender Menace is currently in development, produced by John McKay/Compact Pictures and funded by the Scottish Film Talent Network.

Daisy Jo Lucas

Daisy Jo Lucas

Represented by Peter MacFarlane, MacFarlane Chard

Daisy came to writing whilst performing in theatres across London and Glasgow. Her first stage play FAT CAT was performed Upstairs at the Gatehouse, and her subsequent theatre work has been staged at the Old Red Lion, Tron Theatre, Old Hairdressers, Gilded Balloon, and Glasgow's CCA.

After being awarded a full merit-based scholarship, Daisy studied a Masters in screenwriting where she was mentored by writer and showrunner Liz Lake through the development of an original pilot. Daisy’s first short film EGG was awarded Best Drama Short by the Europe Film Festival and her drama THE PARTY has been shortlisted for �鶹Լ�� Open call. Daisy was long listed for Play Pie Pint's David MacLennon award and has developed audio drama with Kirsty Williams for �鶹Լ�� radio 4. Daisy iscurrently working on her first Television commission for �鶹Լ�� Scotland’s continuing drama series, RIVER CITY.

Grażyna McGroarty

Grażyna McGroarty

Grażyna, technically a Glaswegian, grew up in the rural village of Dunscore and her nearest town was featured in cult classic The Wickerman, which… explains a lot.

In 2016 Grażyna joined the film and television industry as a runner working across scripted television and feature film. Most recently Grażyna has been script assistant for Left Bank Pictures crime thriller Department Q, scheduled to film in 2023.

Grażyna is a graduate of University West of Scotland where she studied Filmmaking and Screen Writing. In 2020 Grażyna completed NFTS Scotland’s certificate course Screenwriting: Finding Your Voice, while working as assistant to director Jon S Baird on feature film TETRIS.

Since then Grażyna has been continuously writing and growing as a filmmaker. PEGGED, her hilarious first feature script has been pitched to Film 4 at Glasgow film festival 2022 and in May 2023 Grażyna made her directorial debut with short film MANIC HEALING.

Eve Nicol

Eve Nicol

Eve is a Glaswegian playwright and theatre director. Their “boundary-breaking” (The Stage) debut play, ONE LIFE STAND for Middle Child, toured the UK for 16 weeks, including the Paines Plough Roundabout @ Summerhall. Eve adapted Belle & Sebastian’s iconic album IF YOU’RE FEELING SINISTER for Avalon and �鶹Լ�� Arts and has directed critically acclaimed productions for the National Theatre of Scotland, Traverse and Tron.

Their provocative 2022 play, SVENGALI, received the Filipa Bragança Award and was nominated for the Popcorn Award for New Writing. Previously Digital Associate of the National Theatre of Scotland, Eve is now a Mentor Director for National Theatre Connections, a Trustee of the Dewar Arts Awards, and Associate Director for much-loved shows WHAT GIRLS ARE MADE OF and ISLANDER.

Eve is supported by the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Peggy Ramsay Foundation, and Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland. Their work, exploring music, love, and power, strives to mend broken hearts and recover lost souls.

Emma Ramsay

Emma Ramsay

Represented by Francesca Devas, Independent Talent

Emma is a screenwriter/director represented by Francesca Devas at Independent Talent. She is currently developing original comedy/horror ideas with Long Boat Pictures & Birdie Pictures. Her TV writing credits include C�鶹Լ�� sitcom NOVA JONES and �鶹Լ�� Scotland’s continuing drama series, RIVER CITY.

After studying for a BSc in Digital Media, specialising in animation and VFX, she undertook an MA in Screenwriting where she wrote a number of short films. Since graduating in 2019 she has been working in television drama development. Currently she is assistant script editor at World Productions working on a true crime drama TBA and across the Scottish development slate.

Jo Spencely

Jo Spencely

Jo is an Edinburgh-based screenwriter and playwright who has just completed her first screenwriting commission, for �鶹Լ�� Scotland’s continuing drama series, ‘River City’ (26th July 2023). In 2023 Jo was selected for �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Voices (Scotland), the Young Films Foundation Skye Screenwriters’ Residency Programme, and The Writers Lab UK & Europe.

Her plays have won the London Playwrights Playclub, been presented at The Old Red Lion Theatre, Barons Court Theatre and The Chiswick Playhouse, and her one-act play, ‘Mayday’, won her a place on the London Playwrights Writer Development Programme.
Jo has an MA with Distinction in Writing for TV from Glasgow Caledonian University. Her work has reached the top 3% in �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Open Call 2023, QF stage in the Stage32 Female Driven Screenwriting Contest (2022) and the top 20% in the New Voice Awards (2021).

Jo loves to write scripts that foreground women’s experiences and explore family dynamics, but always with a wry take on the world.

�鶹Լ�� Writersroom's Voices 2023 - Wales Hub

2023-06-26T09:00:00+00:00

Jess Loveland (Head of New Writing for �鶹Լ�� Writersroom and Drama Commissioning) introduces this year's 72 �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Voices writers from across the UK and Republic of Ireland.

I’m delighted to introduce you to the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Voices 23 writers. From January to June this year we have had the great pleasure of working with 72 incredibly talented emerging writers from across the length and breadth of the UK. We'll be announcing their names throughout this week. Meet the first group (from our Wales hub) below.

The six �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Voices groups

Working closely with the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom team, out of six UK-wide hubs, the writers have taken part in an intensive programme of craft workshops, expert masterclasses and discussions with guest writers including Ryan J Brown (WRECK), Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn (BLUE LIGHTS; THE SALISBURY POISONINGS) and Lisa Holdsworth (CALL THE MIDWIFE; A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES). The writers have also had the opportunity to hear from key industry representatives including agents, producers and member of the �鶹Լ�� Drama Commissioning team, as well as sessions with BAFTA Albert and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain.

All our Voices 23 writers have also spent the last six months defining and developing a new series idea to outline stage with the editorial support of the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom team.

It’s been an immense pleasure getting to know these talented writers this year; we can’t wait to see what they go on to achieve next. I’m thrilled to introduce them to you now and I do hope you enjoy reading through their biogs and getting to know them.

If you would like any further details on any of the Voices 23 writers, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom team: writersroom@bbc.co.uk

You can find out more about Voices and how to gain a place in the group on our Voices page.

Jess Loveland, Head of New Writing, �鶹Լ�� Writersroom + Drama Commissioning

The 12 Voices writers in the 2023 Wales hub

All week we'll be introducing the Voices writers from each of our hubs separately. The first group we'd like you to meet are our 12 Voices from our hub in Wales.

Commissioning Executive Celi Fowler:

"We are incredibly excited to announce our Welsh Voices group for 2023! Since January, we have been working with 12 writers to help develop and hone their writing skills, each working towards an original TV idea. It has been a delight getting to know and working with such a passionate and talented group who have brought with them such an exciting range of ideas. We are looking forward to seeing what they do next!"

Mari Beard & Hanna Jarman

Mari Beard and Hanna Jarman first met in 2006’s NYTW and went on to be performers living in Cardiff. They started their writing partnership in 2017 when they wrote their dark comedy series MERCHED PARCHUS/RESPECTABLE GIRLS with ieie productions which aired in 2019. Together they were nominated for BAFTACymru awards in the writers and breakthrough categories. The series went on to be nominated for a RTS award for Best Drama and a Celtic Media award for Short drama.

They also wrote the drama series Y GYFRINACHfor BoomCymru with support from the BFI young audience fund and are both currently working on a new writing project for ieie productions.

Mari’s other writing credits include BAFTA nominated BEX(Ceidiog) and Hanna’s include, Y TEIMLAD/THAT FEELING (NYTW), BRANWEN (WMC/Fran Wen), GALWAD 2052 (SkyArts). They both also had babies in 2022 because, apparently, they can’t do anything without each other.

Emma Cooney

Emma Cooney is a Welsh Writer and LAMDA-trained Actor. Her Theatre credits include BELLY BUTTONS AND GOODBYE MEMORY LANE (The Sherman Theatre). She’s also written and performed comedy sketches for �鶹Լ�� Sesh and is a proud alumna of both The Sherman Theatre’s Writer’s Group and The Royal Court’s Introduction to Playwrighting Group.

In 2023, her play SIAN DE BERGERAC was shortlisted for �鶹Լ�� Writersroom’s Drama Room, reaching the top 1% of the 4,287 scripts submitted. It was also long-listed for The RSC’s 37 Plays Initiative and an extract was performed at The Sherman Theatre’s New Writing Showcase.

Emma wants to create TV and Theatre that’s hilarious, heart-felt and ambitious. Her work often explores the complexity of women, loneliness and hope.

Phil Hamer

Phil Hamer is a screenwriter from Pontypridd. Arriving late to writing in 2020, Phil’s screenplay SIDE STEP made Nicholl Fellowship quarter final and won Best Unproduced Screenplay at the International Film Festival of Wales in 2022. It also made top 3% at �鶹Լ�� Open Call 2023. His comedy THE DAVIESES was an SWN TV Pilot finalist in 2021 and made Top 12% at �鶹Լ�� Open Call 2022. Phil’s comedy drama HIS OWN DEVICES was an SWN Short Film Script quarter finalist in 2021.

Currently smuggling his strongest beliefs into accessible genre scripts, Phil is developing DISTANT PLANET, an alien love story about a single mum with a wormhole in her airing cupboard (‘Socialism could work if it wasn’t for humans’) and LIMBO, a ghost story set in a desolate Welsh mining town (‘Never trust Westminster or psychics from Merthyr’).

Primarily, Phil seeks to explore the devastating effects of modern capitalism on the poorest regions.

Rebeca Hughes

Rebeca Hughes is a Welsh screenwriter based in Cardiff.

Prior to taking part in the Welsh Voices scheme, her pilot GALAR/GRIEF reached the top 12% of �鶹Լ�� Writersroom’s Open Call. She wrote the screenplay for TV movie romcom ZOE IS HAVING A BABY produced by Reel One Entertainment and starring The Handmaid’s Tale’s Nina Kiri.

Through all genres from drama to comedy, Rebeca enjoys writing quirky, memorable characters and throwing them into situations that speak to the complexity of wider society. In particular, Rebeca focuses on multi-faceted female characters who face moral challenges in their lives and relationships.

When she’s not writing scripts, she’s reading them as a Development Executive in the film industry.

Paisley Jackson

Paisley Jackson is a young female, neurodiverse actor and writer from Newport, South Wales.

Her first play CELTIC MANNERS won ‘The John Thaw Initiative’ and was performed at the Tristan Bates Theatre with two sell-out shows. Paisley’s theatre credits include Chippy Lane Productions, Dirty Protest and Theatr Gwaun.

She reached the top 4% of open submissions for The �鶹Լ�� Writersroom, and is listed as a �鶹Լ�� Promising Writer. CELTIC MANNERS was described as “A Wales-set drama – following on from Polly Garter in Dylan Thomas's ‘Under Milk Wood', and Effie in Gary Owen's ‘Iphigenia In Splott".

In 2022/23 Paisley graduated from The Sherman Theatre Writers and The Royal Court Playwriting Groups where she has completed her new play ZETA.

Now looking forward to writing for television, whilst exploring female led stories with a clear sense of place, Paisley champions herself on her dark humoured pieces, conversational characters and sharp wit.

Natasha Kaeda

Natasha Kaeda is a Welsh-based writer working across stage, screen and audio.

After completing Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab, Natasha went on to develop her first play TIME EQUALS ZERO through a seed commission from The Hampstead Theatre. In 2020 Natasha’s play, IN MY LUNGSTHE OCEAN SWELLS was staged at The Vault Festival and won the Origins Award for Outstanding New Writing and received an OffCom Commendation. Other playwriting credits include THE QUARRY (ALRA showcase), A CRADLE SONG (shortlisted for The Orange Tree Writers Collective), FALLOW (developed with the Sherman Theatre).

Natasha’s episode AUTUMN was the first in a series of four audio dramas called LAND SKEINS. The project won the OffWestEndCom Innovation Award 2021. She is currently developing a new audio play, supported by Arts Council Wales.

In 2022, Natasha was shortlisted for �鶹Լ�� Writersroom’s Pilot scheme with her TV spec script WILL YOU BE THERE TO LOVE ME AT THE END OF THE WORLD.

Melodie Karczewski

Melodie Karczewski is a disabled writer and actor from Thanet who has been living in Cardiff for the last 3 years.

Growing up, she was apart of the BFI Academy, NFTS BFI Academy, HighRise New Gens and the BAFTA mentorship programme where she was mentored by Kayleigh Llewellyn. She is a recent graduate on the BA Acting course at The Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama and is a member of Open Door.

Her short play, THE TASTE OF HEALING, which she wrote, directed and starred in, was put on at The Yard theatre in London in June 2023.

She is interested in telling stories inspired by true events, folklore, forgotten communities and the ethical questions posed by our modern world, in both dramatic and comedic ways.

Photo credit: @Yellowbelly

Hannah McPake

Originally from Edinburgh but now based in Cardiff, Hannah McPake is an actor and playwright. In 2013 she co-founded multi-award-winning gig theatre company Gagglebabble and in 2020 she began writing.

Her first full-length play TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM was performed at Sherman Theatre last Christmas. Recipient of the Radical Creatures Commission from National Theatre Wales, BALLOON GIRL is scheduled for performance in 2025. I AM KEVIN a hybrid theatre/film with Cornish landscape theatre company Wildworks is out in cinemas this July.

Hannah regularly collaborates with yello brick to create audio experiences and is an Associate Artist of Theatr Iolo.

Hannah's work is often inspired by history or reimagining's of well-known stories, it puts female characters squarely centre stage, usually playful and comic but unafraid to delve into the dark side of life, big-hearted and quietly political. Hannah is working on her first TV drama pilot.

Mali Ann Rees

Mali Ann Rees is a Cardiff born writer and actor who trained at East 15 Acting School. Mali debuted her professional writing career with her 30-minute audio-drama BRATIAITH for the Sherman Theatre’s Heart of Cardiff series and subsequently became an Associate Artist for the Sherman Theatre.

She has written sketches for The Size of Us a �鶹Լ�� Radio comedy sketch show which she also performed in. Mali’s first staged work was a short play called THIEVES, which was performed as part of Theatr Clwyd’s Curtain Up series.

Mali was selected for the �鶹Լ�� Welsh Voices 2023 and is looking forward to embarking on her journey into television writing.

Hefin Robinson

Hefin Robinson is a bilingual playwright and writer from Carmarthen. He enjoys regular collaboration with a number of Wales-based companies.

Recent work includes: THE FIELD (yello brick); DOCTOR DOLITTLE’S WILD ADVENTURE, PINOCCHIO AND THE NORTHERN LIGHTS, THE CURIOUS MUCHNESS OF STUFF AND NOTHING (Hijinx Odyssey); FINAL CUT, COLD CASE/GWAED OER (yello brick with Wales Millennium Centre); DREAMERS & DRAGONS, HUMANKIND, NOWHERE (Mess Up The Mess)

Other plays include SOARING (Dirty Protest with NTW/Sherman) and his prize-winning debut ESTRON (‘ALIEN’) which toured Wales in a production by Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru. Hefin has been a participant of Theatr Clwyd’s writer in residence scheme and the Royal Court’s writers’ programme.

David Stevenson

Dave Stevenson is a screenwriter and author from Crickhowell, Powys.

In 2020, he was selected for the Emerging Welsh Writers Group by The Other Room Theatre and Bad Wolf, where he developed his TV drama pilot MY FRIEND, THE WALRUS. His short film, I’M AFRAID IT’S BAD NEWS, screened at the 2020 Borderlines Film Festival, and he has worked in development on several feature projects with acclaimed directors and producers.

As an author, Dave’s work was published in Create 50’s sci-fi anthology THE SINGULARITY, while his self-produced children’s audiobook series, POOR UNCLE DAVE, continues to reach a growing international audience.

Despite the 21st Century’s best efforts, Dave remains an optimist and brings this outlook to his writing. His work covers a range of genres, from rom-com to sci-fi via dramedy and fantasy, with the same core goal; exploring authentic, relatable characters through bold, absurdist concepts.

Becoming a �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Voice

2022-07-11T10:18:05+00:00

All last week we announced the 69 writers who have been part of our five Voices development groups for 2022 across the UK.

But how do you become a 'Voice'?

We asked Katie Elin-Salt from the Welsh Voices to tell us about her writing journey to date and how that led to a place in the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Welsh Voices 2022.

Meet all the Voices writers for 2022 and find out more

The Welsh Voices 2022 - one of �鶹Լ�� Writersroom's five Voices development groups around the UK.

I always say I started writing 5 years ago, but my Mum recently discovered a school report from Mrs Roberts (reception class teacher, 1993) that read “Katie’s stories are delightful and original". To date I’m yet to have a better review, so I think it’s safe to say I peaked at an early age and it’s just been a slow crawl back towards that level of praise ever since. I have definitely taken the scenic route back to the writing desk since my original debut in 1993, locking my own stories away safely and telling those of others whilst working as an actor on stage and screen for over a decade before realising I might have some things to say about the world too.

I think it took me so long because a) I was entirely terrified of being rubbish and being chased out of Soho by pitchfork wielding playwrights and b) because I had no idea about the writing process. I had always just assumed that what happened was that supremely clever and talented professional writers sat down in some sort of Kate-Winslet-In-The-Holiday cottage in the Cotswolds for a weekend, channelled some sort of Aristotle-like muse and then came out with a �鶹Լ�� commission.

It was only while working on a new writing season with Paines Plough in 2017 that I realised that actually the process from cottage to curtain up involved a whole load of useful things like redrafting, dramaturgy, script editing and conversations with clever people who can help carve out your messy blob of an idea of a story into an actual thing that people actually want to watch. Realising this, and reassuring myself that it was ok if I was a bit rubbish at first (because I’d literally never done it before) - I started putting tentative feelers out to the connections I’d made through my time as an actor, and from that I was fortunate enough to get some time and space in Stockrooms’ new writers’ room (There was a ceremony, I cut a ribbon) and I wrote the first draft of my first play in a fortnight. 80% of it was rubbish, but 20% wasn’t entirely and so I found people that I thought could help me carve out the heart of the story within that 20% (I bought a lot of coffees for people whose work I admired and I got some clever friends round who I trusted to read it out loud and tell me about what they liked and what they didn’t) and then I started again on a clean page. 5 years later, I’m still carving out that particular story, but I’m learning that these things take as long as they take and in the meantime I’ve found loads of other ones to tell and also how to slowly build a career in writing.

Katie Elin-Salt performing as part of the Paines Plough Roundabout season in Black Mountain by Brad Birch: (Hasan Dixon and Katie Elin-Salt, Photo: Jonathan Keenan)

For me as a Welsh writer, companies like Chippy Lane and Dirty Protest championed me to write from the start and gave me the confidence to put pen to paper and feel like I might be heard on the other side. After conversations about how it all worked and how they supported new writers, I had the confidence to send off some work for scratch nights that they were holding, and saw my work performed for actual audiences out loud for the first time. I also booked onto a residential week that Dirty Protest were holding in Ty Newydd writer’s centre, where the great Tim Price was to sit us all down and show us inside the structural matrix of how to tell an actual story. Unfortunately, I’d had a dodgy burger on the way up so I spent the next 48 hours alone in the attic room, with nothing but memories of other dark periods of life for company, like the time I spent my whole Christmas working as an elf in Santa’s Grotto in Westfields. Two days later I emerged to ask Tim to make me some dry toast and to listen to my idea about an elf called Sprinkles living through the worst Christmas ever. And that idea was eventually to become my first full play, developed, R+D-ed and eventually fully produced by Dirty Protest four years later.

After that I applied for every opportunity under the sun (keep your eyes on Twitter), waded through endless rejection emails and eventually found the precious few successful ones for writing schemes such as Royal Court Introduction to Playwriting group and Soho Theatre Writers’ lab. These schemes gave me tools, a community, professional connections and most importantly the confidence I’ve needed to call myself a theatre writer, to write things and to know what to do and who to call to get better at it. In March 2020 I was thrilled to secure a writing residency at Theatre Clwyd, travelling up for a stay in the beautiful Gladstone's library, where I was to spend my time wandering the gardens, reading old books and writing my masterpiece. A day later I sat in a very sad full-staff meeting where Tamara Harvey gently explained that we were shutting up shop for the foreseeable, and off we all went head first into the pandemic.

Like many creatives, I was heartbroken and bewildered - but I didn’t stop writing. I applied for and then wrote a commission for the Sherman Theatre’s online series, for Stockrooms’ Signal Fires piece, I continued to work on the idea I was developing with Theatr Clwyd and I also applied for the �鶹Լ�� Wales Writer in Residence scheme. Unbelievably, I was longlisted and then shortlisted for that - pipped to the post by the brilliant Faebian Averies, but making my first connection with Helen Perry and the team at �鶹Լ�� Writersroom and �鶹Լ�� Wales and encouraged to continue applying, I reached interview stage for the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Open Call 2021, and from that was encouraged to apply for the �鶹Լ�� Welsh Voices scheme, which I was thrilled to secure a place on at the start of this year.

As part of the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Voices, in our regional cohorts it was great to have time to share and explore work together, to read each other's work and to have the time to have conversations about it all with Helen Perry and Emily Angell facilitating to make sure we all stayed on task! We also got to meet local production companies and make new professional connections, which I hope we will be able to draw on in the future. When the five Voices groups across the UK all joined together we were lucky enough to have masterclasses with writers and producers who spoke to us honestly about their journeys and how they worked. I also really enjoyed our session with Lisa Holdsworth, the chair of the Writer's Guild - who spoke to us about the work of the union and what we should and should not expect as professional writers moving forward. All of these experiences on both a regional and nationwide level provided a really in depth insight into the craft of carving out and sustaining a career as a screenwriter, and the practical/professional tools we might need to find our feet.

Celebrated Virgins by Katie Elin-Salt (Victoria John and Heather Agyepong at Theatr Clwyd)

In 2022 the idea developed in my Theatr Clwyd residency became my first commissioned play Celebrated Virgins which ran at The Mix, Clwyd and in Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff last month - and I’m also just now coming to the end of my time with Welsh Voices.

What’s been really validating for me about the experience of starting my journey with the �鶹Լ�� on the Voices scheme has been being given the permission and the space to say I know absolutely nothing about writing for TV. Of course I don’t, I’ve never done it before, Nigella Lawson didn’t know how to scald milk before someone bought her a microwavé, but a lot of the time as a writer you kind of have to smile, nod and pretend that you know everything.

The �鶹Լ�� team (especially Helen Perry, a brilliant and kind TV commissioner who I think has met this kind of glass-eyed writers’ panic before) have been incredibly generous at creating a safe space where we can learn together, making horrible mistakes, asking awkward questions and being vulnerable with people in the room who can help. It’s been a real learning curve, at times challenging and confronting, but being able to learn and have space and time with people at the top of their game sharing time and knowledge with us - has been so validating.

Again, through securing a place on a scheme like this I am walking out feeling like I know a little bit more about what I’m doing and how to do it, and who to call when I don’t, in this new world of screenwriting. I’ve also really loved virtually meeting the other �鶹Լ�� UK schemes (apart from Welsh Voices being shamelessly robbed in the end of scheme quiz) and I feel I have made connections with a peer group at a similar level to myself, and I hope to continue to champion and celebrate each others’ successes moving forward.

I think my advice for those who are considering writing or making the move into screenwriting and applying for TV writing schemes would be - just start telling your stories and find the people who can help you to tell them. Don’t expect to be brilliant at first, but know that you can get better if you let the right people help you. Don’t expect to get onto all the schemes straight away, but know that you can if you keep going, keep trying, keep listening and most importantly -

KEEP WRITING!

�鶹Լ�� Writersroom's Voices 2022 - Welsh Voices

2022-07-08T10:52:25+00:00

Welsh Voices 2022

All this week we've been announcing the names of the 69 writers who have been part of our Voices development groups for 2022. The final group (for purely alphabetical reasons) are the 13 Welsh Voices. Meet them all below and find out more.

"It’s a real treat to be able to announce our Welsh Voices 2022. I hope these writers go on to do amazing things, because not only are they extremely talented, they’re a lovely bunch of human beings. Seeing their TV skills and ideas develop over the last few months has been a pleasure and a privilege. I’m excited to see what the future holds for these Welsh screenwriters of tomorrow."

Helen Perry (Assistant Commissioner for Wales, �鶹Լ�� Writersroom and �鶹Լ�� Drama)

See details of all the Voices writers 2022

Find out more about the Voices programme

Azuka

Azuka is a playwright and screenwriter, born and raised in London, she has lived in Cardiff since 2012.

She has been a participant in the Royal Court Writers programme and is currently a part of the Sherman Theatre's inaugural Unheard Voices Writers development programme.

Her first full length play ‘The Last Bastion’ has been commissioned by the Other Room Theatre and was shortlisted for �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Drama Room 2021, making it to the top 1% of the 5167 scripts submitted. She has also had a screenplay longlisted for the �鶹Լ�� Studios/Thousand Films Thousand Stories competition.

Azuka is passionate about telling stories that centre complex women and shine alight on underrepresented, marginalised communities in both contemporary and historical settings.

Sam Burns

Sam Burns a playwright, was born in Cardiff. She worked for several years as an editor for a small publishing company, and more recently as an assistant to a gardener and a freelance transcriber. Her produced work includes a piece in Paines Plough’s Come to Where I’m From, ‘Two Bears’ for Sixty-Six Books at the Bush Theatre, ‘Amnesty’ in Agent 160 Presents Agent 160 and The Ostrich, a 15-minute play for �鶹Լ�� Radio Wales’ Dylan Thomas season in late 2014.

Her first full-length play, Not the Worst Place, was produced by Paines Plough, Theatr Clwyd and Sherman Cymru in April-May 2014, and was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award in 2011. Her radio play Floor 13 aired on �鶹Լ�� Radio 4’s Afternoon Drama slot in late May 2017. She lives in the Shetland Islands.

Ross Simon Eccleston

Ross Simon Eccleston is a Cardiff based screenwriter from North Wales. Ross studied theatre and film at Bangor University before being accepted onto the MA Screenwriting course at the Screen Academy Scotland where his short comedy film ‘A Trifling Matter’ was produced by the BFI Academy.

His drama script ‘The Hidden’ was shortlisted for the �鶹Լ�� Drama Room and he is currently writing his first play. Ross draws inspiration from his own experiences and hopes to bring a unique perspective to themes of grief, community, home and family dynamics.

Katie Elin-Salt

Katie Elin-Salt is a writer from Bridgend, South Wales, living and working in Cardiff. After a decade as an actor working across mediums, Katie developed an interest in writing whilst working with Paines Plough and subsequently gained a successful mentorship as a new writer under the Royal Courts’ playwriting programme.

Her latest play CELEBRATED VIRGINS will premiere at Theatr Clwyd in May 2022. Katie’s one-woman show SPRINKLES was developed with Dirty Protest and ran for a Christmas 2021 production. As a playwright, she has been commissioned by Sherman Theatre, Chippy Lane, RWCMD, Iris Theatre, Out of Joint and Far Away Plays. Katie is a current member of Soho Theatre Writers’ lab. She was a Theatr Clwyd Writer in Residence 2020/21, and is a proud member of the Chippy Lane Welsh Female Writers’ group.

Katie was shortlisted for �鶹Լ�� Wales Writer in Residence 2020 and �鶹Լ�� Comedy/Drama Room 2021. She is now carving out her voice as a Welsh, queer, working-class, female TV writer in Wales. Katie is passionate about female-led

Zia Holloway

Zia Holloway is a 23-year-old emerging television screenwriter who specialises in writing drama, magical-realism and sci-fi to create rich, characterful worlds, and authentic stories. She is a Script Angel scholar and the winner of the World Productions Welsh Writers award and has original series in development with The Forge, The Ink Factory, Studio 21 and World Productions. She has gained experience across a range of mediums including television, animation, and theatre.

Samantha O'Rourke

Samantha O’Rourke is a northern writer/director based in North Wales. Recent screen projects include short film Jelly (Ffilm Cymru/�鶹Լ�� Wales/Mad as Birds), winner of the Chapter Queer Film Prize and original comedy drama Mincemeat for Channel 4’s On the Edge series. Sam was Writer on Attachment for Liverpool’s Everyman Playhouse and part of artist led project Future Forms at the Donmar Warehouse. Other theatre credits include Theatr Clwyd, Volcano Theatre, Boundless Theatre and Dirty Protest.

Sam is currently developing her debut feature supported by Ffilm Cymru and a comedy drama series for Channel 4 Drama. Her play Our Town Needs a Nandos will premiere summer 2022 at Liverpool’s Everyman Playhouse. She was also recently selected as a BFI Flare x BAFTA mentee.

Joe and Ruth Ollman

Ruth and Joe Ollman are siblings from Powys, before moving to Cardiff at a young age. Joseph is a multi-award winning Writer/Director, having gained early acclaim for his films, including Meat on Bones, which earned a BAFTA Cymru nomination and Bitter Sky, which was broadcast on �鶹Լ�� Two Wales. Ruth studied acting at the Guildhall School for Music and Drama before moving into writing. Her previous work includes the play The Blue Hour, which she performed at the GSMD and later TV series The Panic, which was developed with Hillbilly Productions.

They’ve recently started writing in partnership, with their first script All Poor Creatures selected for the Celtic Screen Talent Showcase at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The script later gained interest from World Productions, before they were selected for the �鶹Լ�� Voices programme. They’ve found they make a well balanced writing duo, with Joseph’s understanding of story structure and Ruth’s comprehension of the psychology of characters.

Richard Pask

Richard Pask was selected from nearly 4,000 writers for the �鶹Լ�� WRITERSROOM COMEDY ROOM 2020/2021. As part of the scheme, he developed Griff Duff, a poignant but heart-warming comedy-drama based on his own real-life experiences.

Richard is a former BAFTA INTERNATIONAL NEW TALENT and BRITISH COUNCIL WALES INTERNATIONAL YOUNG ARTIST AWARD shortlistee. His short films have been screened on �鶹Լ�� Wales and the iPlayer, S4C, Sky, and at numerous film festivals around the world.

He has worked extensively in film and television production – firstly as a child actor, but primarily as a script supervisor. Recently, he directed the second unit of the �鶹Լ�� Wales sitcom The Tuckers.

Richard is originally from Caerphilly, but now lives in Cardiff. In his writing, he tries to find a bittersweet vein of humour in painful situations. He is also a passionate advocate of authentic working-class voices; particularly his own.

Martha Reed

Martha Reed is a young Welsh female writer for TV and theatre. She is currently developing original comedy drama for TV with Objective Fiction and Tall Story Pictures, and she recently worked in the writers room as a shadow writer for an upcoming �鶹Լ�� drama. She was one of 12 writers on the Channel 4 Screenwriting Course 2021, selected from a record 3880 applicants.

Martha is one of five writers-in-residence at Theatre503. She recently wrote and directed season two BAFTA-nominated crime drama game DEAD MAN’S PHONE. Her debut play EXISTENTIAL FISH AND DREAD toured from The Cockpit (London) to Chapter Arts Centre (Cardiff) and the Exeter Phoenix in 2021-2022. Her second play, THE GHOST OF YOU, placed in the top 10% of a record 5167 submissions to �鶹Լ�� Script Room 2021, and was longlisted for development at the Traverse. She was Chippy Lane Productions’ Writing Apprentice to BAFTA-winning writer Alan Harris, a position funded by Arts Council Wales. Her previous credits include short plays VERA JONES at The Old Red Lion and HOW LOAN CAN YOU GO? at The Pleasance, Islington. Martha’s work champions underrepresented voices, putting women centre stage and sharing working-class stories.

Owen Lloyd Richards

Owen Lloyd Richards is a screenwriter and playwright, born in Cardiff and now living in north Wales.

In 2021, Owen was selected for Channel 4’s 4Screenwriting scheme from over 3,880 applicants, where he developed a drama pilot titled ANTISOCIAL. His short film OVERS was broadcast on �鶹Լ�� Two Wales in 2019, produced via It’s My Shout.

Owen most recently worked on the UK-wide immersive storytelling experience StoryTrails with �鶹Լ��, BFI and StoryFutures Academy. He’s currently working with Next Door But One theatre company to develop a theatre piece about foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Previously, Owen spent 10 years as a digital storyteller in the social care sector. This experience has inspired the stories he tells: social realism that finds light in the dark, and truth in the complex.

Carol Vine

Carol Vine is a screenwriter and playwright, based in Powys. Her screenplays have been shortlisted for the �鶹Լ�� Talent Sitcom Writing Initiative and the �鶹Լ�� Story2K2 Competition. Her recent screenplay, Immaculate, was one of the runners up in the Thousand Films Screenwriting Competition and her latest screenplay, Moose Moose Alpaca Unicorn, was selected as a quarter finalist in the international Screen and Story Film Festival, as well as reaching the top 2% in the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom for drama comedy submissions. It was also shortlisted for the �鶹Լ�� Wales World Productions Award.

As a playwright, Carol’s successes have included Rigor Mortis (performed at the Finborough Theatre as one of the runners up for the Papatango Prize) and The Spring Tide, produced at the Old Red Lion Theatre. Her play Borderland was selected for Write Now 3 at the Jack Studio Theatre and the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom 10. Carol’s latest play, Sugar and Spice, earned its way to the longlist for the Welsh Writer in Residence.

Henry Waddon

Henry Waddon is a 22-year-old writer, actor and medical student from Cardiff. He is currently partaking in Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru’s Young Playwrights Programme, as well as Pentabus Theatre’s Young Writers National Programme. In 2021, Henry co-created and performed in an original piece of verbatim theatre, ‘HOME’, for the National Student Drama Festival, as part of the 2020-21 NDSF Writers’ Lab.

Henry’s writing has led him to be shortlisted for schemes such as �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Drama Room and The Oxford Playhouse Playmaker Residency, in addition to being longlisted for the Royal Court’s Playwrights Group. His debut play, ‘PLAGUED’ was a recipient of the Best New Play award at the 2019 Oxford University New Writing Festival. As an actor, Henry has performed at venues such as the Arcola Theatre, The New Theatre, Cardiff and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in addition to featuring in TV commercials. Henry wants to create accessible TV that champions Welsh artists and the Welsh language, and that shines a light on issues surrounding our health and its fragility.

Creating Vandullz for �鶹Լ�� Wales' Festival of Funny

2021-11-23T14:00:26+00:00

We caught up with our former Welsh Voices Leila Navabi and Sion Edwards to hear about working together on a brand new comedy, which goes out this evening on �鶹Լ�� One Wales and �鶹Լ�� iPlayer.

Watch Vandullz on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer

Filming Vandullz

How did you find writing as a partnership? Was it something you had ever thought you would do before?

Leila: Genuinely so lovely. I think there's been a really strange push for atomised working in the recent past. Perhaps the 'Phoebe Waller-Bridge' effect? The idea that there's more value in art if it's someone's sole creation. I just disagree so hard. Collaboration and connection is absolutely the only way to tell stories that authentically ring true in our society.

Sion: I enjoyed it immensely. It was great! It helped writing with Leila, who's not just a great writer, comedian and performer, but she's also a great person as well, who I now consider a great mate of mine.

Writing can be very lonely as you are away from people for long periods. What was great with this was a chance to have someone else's company whilst writing, but also somebody to bounce ideas with, discuss ideas and characters with, to ask questions about characters and the story to, and to receive questions back in return about any of my suggestions about the characters and story. It was great to be creative with someone else whilst writing and working things through as we went along.

I had thought of writing with others before, and I've chatted with friends about sitcom ideas etc in the past, but actually writing a script with someone else - I've never done that. Now having written with someone else, I'd be eager to do it again - and most definitely with Leila.

Watch a clip from Episode 1 of Vandullz: Heledd has a Stowaway Band Manager, Carys, debreifs the band following the Swansea leg of their White Lion pub tour and Heledd has a stowaway.

What were the logistics of writing as a team – did you always write together or did you edit each other’s work?

Leila: So we absolutely had a moment at the start when we were like 'Cool. How on earth do we do this?' But we just chatted and laughed and found we had musical interest in common and ended up writing together the whole way through. Just us on Zoom, taking it in turn to type so our hands didn't ache.

Sion: Since I was in North Wales and Leila was in London, we just wrote over Google Hangouts and Zoom. So, we had a virtual writer's room together. At the start it was very much 'How do we do this?', but since neither of us had previous experience writing with someone else, this helped. It allowed for us both to approach it, with both of us, in the same position. We did it our way, rather than someone using a previous way of writing with someone else.

We laughed and chatted for hours, and we made a WhatsApp group, and during the day we'd be messaging each other or leaving voice messages with ideas and suggestions. We still do that now! And we also even wrote at Green Man Festival. The first time we met in person was at Green Man Festival, a few months after we started writing together and meeting to write over Hangouts and Zoom.

Vandullz

How has working together changed the way you approach scripts? Did it enable you to take more risks for example?

Leila: I think it allowed us both to focus on the funny. We spend most of our sessions just trying to make each-other laugh. It made the prospect of broadcast less scary because you're not trying to please the masses, just one person who you respect.

Sion: It’s made me consider things more, having that person opposite ask questions or come up with suggestions. I've always been open to questions and suggestions, but now even more so.

It helped that neither of us were precious about our ideas which meant we were constantly talking about what we were writing, this meant 'VanDullz' was a real joint writing effort and a sitcom which came from both of us. Back at the start of the year, we didn't know each other, but now Leila is one of my great mates. And we've written this together, a sitcom that's come from us both. That makes me proud.

Sion Edwards and Leila Navabi

Any stand out moments?

Leila: We just spent the whole time cackling, quite frankly. We were like naughty school children, seeing how cheeky we could get away with being in our writing. But you'll see that in the show, I reckon. Also once we got on location, seeing and sitting inside the Van (which is called Heledd and is played our dear friend, the incredible Kiri Pritchard-McLean). The art department made it look exactly what it was like in our head. That was cool.

Sion: The whole experience was great, working with Henry Widdecombe and his production company - Little Wander, who were amazing and so supportive of our idea was awesome. The crew were all superb. The cast were all superb and really got under the skins of their characters. Carys Lewis, our director, was superb. And of course, writing with Leila was so fun and exciting!

During the filming, I stayed on the peripherals, wanting to give our DOP (Rik Burnell - who was great) and Carys and the crew the space they needed to work. I didn't want to be in the way. When it came to the filming, at that point the script was written so it was a case of handing it over and trusting that everyone will take it further and bring it to life. Which they totally did! I just stayed on the peripherals, watching from a safe distance. I was keen to see how it looked, but also wanted to be completely respectful of Carys, Rik and the crew and their creative working process.

There was a moment, early on a Saturday morning (the 3rd morning of early starts!) when we were filming down Aberystwyth sea front, the sky was a light blue, and it was just stunning. I decided to walk up a bit to the set and got a quick glimpse of how it looked and it was that moment I thought - 'Yep!'. It was exactly how Leila and I had pictured 'VanDullz' looking. We always wanted this to be about Wales, but the Wales between the picture perfect postcard Wales. Away from the well-known sights. That's where these characters exist, they live away from the picture perfect postcard Wales. They're in their own world. Their own bubble. I hope people like it and want to spend more time with the 'VanDullz' in the future.

Watch Vandullz on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer

Watch more shows in the Festival of Funny on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer

Writing my first episode of Casualty

2021-08-26T13:30:47+00:00

Rachel Harper is a writer and actor who was previously part of our Welsh Voices writer development group. She explains what it was like to write her first episode of Casualty, which is broadcast this Saturday 28th August at 9.30pm and on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer.

I’m writing this the day I begin the contract for my second episode of Casualty which should tell you two things. One - I must have done something right. And two - I enjoyed it so much I came back for more. (Either that or they were desperate and I was strapped for cash… but I’m going with the former.)

Casualty: Series 36, Episode 3 'Short Fuses', written by Rachel Harper

Writing for continuing drama is like leaping aboard a moving train, in the case of Casualty a train that has been on the tracks since 1986. It’s a well oiled machine and for me, understanding how every piece fits into place was the first learning curve. Almost as soon as I had said yes to the contract my diary dates came through - pitch due dates, head of department meetings, treatment deadlines. Were it not all moving so fast I probably would have taken a bit of time to panic but as it stood, I was straight in at the deep end. Panicking time is a luxury in continuing drama - and honestly you’re better off without. So I threw myself in with both feet. I re-watched episodes, read character bios, timed episodes and gave them a full autopsy in order to understand the nature of the beast. Don’t get me wrong I have been an avid Casualty watcher for years, but when you know your words are going to be on that screen soon, you see it all in a different light.

Rosa Cadenas (JACEY SALLÉS) in Casualty 'Short Fuses'

I was suddenly aware of how short a lot of the scenes were, where the long ones tended to appear, how the A, B and C stories would intertwine and play out time-wise. How hooks worked, how episodes grabbed you at the beginning and gave you something to come back for next time.

Then before I knew it, it was time to read my episode serial! I couldn’t have been happier - even though lots of things shifted and changed as we progressed, I was so thrilled with my episode. But I had no idea how to translate the serial document (the storylining document for the threads of your episode) into a treatment. To me, it read like a treatment - so what was there for me to do? “Take ownership of it!” Was the headline note from my wonderful script editor (one of my favourite parts of writing for Casualty was my incredibly supportive script editors, who also doubled as my mentors/therapists/human connection during a global pandemic).

That note was one of the most helpful, I can see that now as I read my current serial. Plot the vital beats, stick to the storyline but take ownership of the detail, the motivations, the inspirations. And then there is the fun of pitching a guest story! Just don’t do what I did and suggest an old feller tripping over a hosepipe - “that might have flown in the early nineties but you are writing Saturday night drama” (a note I frequently received and now have tattooed on my lower back). The trick with guest stories is like any good bit of writing, simple story, complex character and a clear character arc.

The scary thing with a medical drama is the meds - especially if like me, the most you know about emergency medicine was the time you were sat in a festival first aid tent because you drank too much and fell out of your wellies. But that is where the brilliant medical advisors swoop in, and they are brilliant.

The big question which I begin with now is ‘what did this character learn that they wouldn’t have learnt if they hadn’t fallen over a hosepipe…’.

Ethan Hardy (GEORGE RAINSFORD), Matthew (OSI OKERAFOR) in Casualty 'Short Fuses'

Next up was a pitch meeting with the Heads of Departments - which I assumed was going to be a couple of people but turned out to be an enormous zoom during which I reminded myself I did not win the lottery - I’m meant to be in this room. There I watched everyone discuss the ins and outs, what is possible to do for a guest stunt, where it is possible to film and everything else that has to be taken into account.

Then once we had the green light on that story and the treatments were all done it was onto the scene by scene! Again, this was the first time I had ever written one. I quickly discovered that I bloody love a good bit of colour coding. I would recommend it. Each thread gets its own colour and then you can see how the stories mesh and intertwine - which makes everything clearer. What has too much? What needs more? What cannot go back to back? An added complication is how the lot works. You have a set amount of time on location, and in different areas of the studio but with the help of my script editor, we made sense of it all.

A bit of back and forth on that and we were sailing into the first draft. This was where I did what I will affectionately call the continuing drama cry. “Oh God what am I doing? I have to actually write it and be good and turn this into forty pages!” (she wailed into her sauvignon blanc). But once that was out of my system and also remembering that I had the nicest team around me - it got a lot easier. And OBVIOUSLY the first draft is meant to be terrible. (She tells herself). I’m never one to let perfect get in the way of absolutely readable.

Iain Dean (MICHAEL STEVENSON), Jan Jenning (DI BOTCHER) in Casualty 'Short Fuses'

From there on it is all of the fun of rewriting - which I loved. Working on the fly, solving mysteries (Why isn’t this story working? What are these characters' real motivations? Where did all my gin go?) and finding or meeting the characters' voices. It’s great fun. Continuing drama writing takes a particular kind of writer I feel. You can’t be precious, yes that bit of dialogue might have been your Hemingway moment but is it tonally fitting? Does it have a clear thought so that the actor can make sense of what it is you want them to say? Have you nailed that character's voice? (Know your Fairheads from your Beauchamps). Because this isn’t an exercise to stroke an artistic ego, it’s adding a stroke to an already existing painting.

By the time we made it to shooting drafts, the rewrites had all slowed down and we were ready to go and I was lucky enough to get to go to set - although frankly, finding out it wasn’t a real hospital was devastating. Next they’ll be telling me Walford doesn’t actually exist. But getting to see the layout was invaluable, especially going into a second episode. And watching how scenes are turned around by a brilliant team and how the actors roll with your script is a joy. This was where I learnt two particular pieces of advice. Throughout the process I had a terrible habit of getting people stuck talking around beds, which is not that momentum-filled Saturday night drama you want. While chatting about this with one of the team, he told me about a brilliant scene in Game of Thrones, where a man is chatting whilst skinning a deer. It changes the scene completely - he is not just talking, he is skinning a wild animal. So now in any scene I always aim to skin the deer - not literally, although hey if that stunt ends up in the next script then so be it.

And the second piece of great info came from one of the actors who had shifted a few lines. I was worried I hadn’t nailed his voice but he informed me it wasn’t the voice, it was the thought. An actor will love you if you give them a script or a scene that makes sense. Because when it makes sense, the actor can make sense of it. Even if you thought that curve ball line you’d put in was pure genius, is it serving the actor and the scene, or do you just like it? A switch flicked in my head, and now I apply these two rules to everything I write.

Robyn Miller (AMANDA HENDERSON) in Casualty 'Short Fuses'

Once my episode was all done and dusted I was lucky enough to be invited to a storylining conference. Which was super exciting (and not just because of the free stationery and fact that I hadn’t been in a room with that many people since January of 2020). Watching the team create storylines was such a learning curve too, of course I did my best to contribute but above all I wanted to be there to learn. Watching someone who really knows what they are doing, plot the trajectory of a character and how every piece of their story will fit together, is again, invaluable experience. When you’re in a room with very smart people, the smartest thing you can do is absorb it all.

And now here I am! Back again! My pitches were sent off today, my HOD meeting to discuss them is tomorrow and I couldn’t be happier to be leaping back on that train - because continuing drama is where all of my favourite writers began, and after the mentoring, experience and fun I had the first time round, I can really see why…

Watch Rachel's episode of Casualty, 'Short Fuses' on Saturday 28th August at 9.30pm on �鶹Լ�� One and on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer

Celebrating Casualty at 35 - Discover 10 Memorable Episodes and download and read the scripts

Find out more about Rachel Harper

Watch Rachel's appearance on The Ellen Show

How my script "The Lemonade Lads" was produced for �鶹Լ�� Radio 4

2021-07-19T09:31:35+00:00

Faebian Averies is the current Wales Writer in Residence with �鶹Լ�� Wales, National Theatre Wales and �鶹Լ�� Writersroom. She describes how her winning script "The Lemonade Lads" was produced as a Radio Drama for �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 during lockdown.

The Lemonade Lads is due to be broadcast today, Monday 19th July on �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 and on �鶹Լ�� Sounds. My mum said she’s getting scones in for the event. I said it’s about lemonade - she said she prefers scones.

It doesn’t seem ages ago when I was walking back to my parent’s house to tell them I’d won Wales Writer in Residence. �鶹Լ�� Wales had told me they wanted to interview me about being shortlisted for the award but when I arrived, they ushered me into the studio, put me on air and told me I’d won. I think the video footage of me winning sheds some light on how overwhelmed (and inarticulate about it) I was. It’s been an incredible journey so far and I urge people to apply to these schemes as I never thought I’d win and it really has allowed me the proper time and support to develop my career.

This external content is available at its source: Watch as Faebian Averies finds out she is the new Wales Writer in Residence, live on �鶹Լ�� Radio Wales

I went into my first meeting with �鶹Լ�� Radio Drama in Wales around December last year and I think what I quickly realised was how interesting writing for radio is. I’d performed a few of my own monologues for audio but aside from that I had been writing a lot for screen up until that point, having spent the year prior in �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Welsh Voices, so for radio I had to start learning how to write for a relatively new medium to me.

The �鶹Լ�� sent me a huge archive of audio dramas and for about a week I exclusively wore headphones seeing how radio worked from a writing perspective. I then learnt how amazing it is to go from the idea, to working on the script, to it being recorded and then to hear all the magic that is created by post-production. I’ve really loved that - hearing it come to life - I think audio is such an immersive, unique platform for storytelling and it’s safe to say I’ve fallen quite in love with it.

The �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Welsh Voices 2019/20

This play is a product of lockdown in a way, not so much in its subject matter, but its entire conception, process and recording took place remotely. I’d actually met my director, James Robinson, in real life at a Welsh Voices session but for this project we did everything over zoom. The biggest challenge for me was the distractions that come with working from home. In fact, as I write this the building work that went on during the time I was writing and recording The Lemonade Lads is still in full swing, and I’m thinking back to last Christmas when I was putting together the first seeds of this story, shopping online for ear defenders, whilst everyone working remotely across the country was trying to concentrate through their own working from home distractions.

This external content is available at its source: Faebian Averies recording Lemonade Lads drama from home during lockdown

James and I did all the redrafts over email and zoom and then when it came to recording, the cast and production team were in their homes, everyone surrounded by several pillows (Connor Allen by a whole mattress, Steffan Rhodri in a tent), crossing our fingers for as minimal external noise as possible. Luckily, we weren’t interrupted too much and over the course of the two recording days it was an unbelievable joy to hear the words that I’d written tucked away in my bedroom being said by an amazing cast who breathed so much life into the story.

Faebian Averies with the Wales Writer in Residence Award

So, as I sit listening to The Lemonade Lads being broadcast into people’s living rooms on Monday, nervously working my way through several scones - I will be thinking of how very grateful I am to all the people who helped get my work to this point. The panel for the Wales Writer in Residence Award, Helen Perry (former Development Producer for �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Wales), James Robinson, the production team, the amazing actors and the glorious people who sell ear defenders online. It’s been an overwhelming experience for me and I have developed a deep appreciation for a medium that is so rewarding for a writer to work in.

Listen to The Lemonade Lads on �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 on Monday 19th July 2021 from 2pm or on �鶹Լ�� Sounds

Find out more about Faebian Averies on our blog

Keep an eye out on our website and social media for announcements about the next Wales Writer in Residence opportunity

Recording my Wales Writer in Residence winning play for �鶹Լ�� Radio 4

2021-01-19T14:13:49+00:00

Part of Rhiannon Boyle's prize as winner of the first Wales Writer in Residence with �鶹Լ�� Wales and National Theatre Wales is to have her winning play produced for �鶹Լ�� Radio 4. Rhiannon reports from the recording, which turned out to be quite a different experience from what she had expected...

Listen to Safe from Harm on �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 on Wednesday 20th January at 2.15pm or on �鶹Լ�� Sounds

Rhiannon Boyle (Photo credit: Gemma Griffiths Photography)

In 2019 my debut play Safe From Harm won the �鶹Լ�� Wales Writer in Residence competition. As part of the prize it’s commissioned for broadcast on �鶹Լ�� Radio 4.

Now, pre-pandemic the play was due to be recorded in the world leading, high tech recording studio in the shiny, new �鶹Լ�� Central Square building in Cardiff. It was supposed to be the first ever audio drama to be recorded there. The �鶹Լ�� Writersroom team had an exciting press launch planned and were all set to secure some big name actors.

Our recording date was set - March the 24th and 25th 2020.

In the lead up my director emails me -

‘Let’s hope this thing peaks and dies down before our recording date!’ She says.

Her positivity was admirable, but gosh, how little we knew back then about the disruption and heartache this virus would cause.

And so, of course, the pandemic forces us into national lockdown and the recording of Safe From Harm is postponed. But if this global pandemic has taught us folk working in the media or the arts anything, it’s that -

The show must go on!

Safe from Harm by Rhiannon Boyle. Listen on �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 or �鶹Լ�� Sounds from Wednesday 20th January.

Months pass and lockdown is eased. A new recording date is set for the beginning of December 2020, but this time the play will be recorded remotely.

So how did this new, rather unconventional way of recording a �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 play actually work?

I’ll tell you...

Firstly, actors are cast. Some are down the road from me in Cardiff and others are in London. Next the actors are couriered state of the art microphones and they’re sent instructions on how to make soundproof recording studios at home. They are to situate themselves in cupboards, wardrobes or any other small space and surround themselves by duvets and pillows. It’s far from the glamorous life of an actor we all envisage, yet the highly skilled team of performers make it work. After all, isn’t that what 2020 was all about? Adapting to change and getting on with it.

Next, a few days before the recording date, the team are sent links and log in instructions for a jazzy recording platform called Pre Rec. The main actor, director, assistant and sound engineer however, are all allowed to be in the Cardiff Central Square studio - socially distanced and adhering to the rules of course.

Rhiannon recording the drama... from her kitchen table

On the recording day I’m nervous and excited. It’s just me, my laptop and the dog in my - not very state of the art - kitchen. I’m disappointed I won’t get to meet the actors face to face and get the full experience of recording in the flashy studio. However, once we’ve all popped our earphones in, if you close your eyes it actually feels like we’re in the same room together. We introduce ourselves; we chat, we giggle and soon we’re used to this new norm - the virtual greenroom.

Next the assistant and I set ourselves up on WhatsApp chat. Now, normally in a recording studio the actors in the studio can’t hear the team in the booth unless a button is pressed. This way the team can discreetly discuss any notes that need to be passed on to the actors. However, on Pre Rec we can all hear each other all the time. And so, in this unconventional set up I’m to text the assistant and ask her to feed back notes to the team in the booth, then those notes are fed from the director to the actors. It’s strange at first, but it works pretty well.

We’re ready to go.

Recording Safe from Harm

Phones are put on silent. Everyone has warned their families, partners and home-schooled children to be quiet because the virtual ‘red recording light’ is about to go on! There must be no - singing, shouting, talking to hard-of-hearing people on the phone, dishwasher unstacking, ukulele playing and definitely no DIY. I pop a note on the door telling the delivery guy not to knock.

During recording the microphones are hugely sensitive. They pick up everything from the actor's gurgling stomachs to script pages gently turning. In contrast to recording in a studio there seem to be more challenges with mic levels. Scenes that contain shouting result in distortion, but we overcome these small hurdles without much delay. We pull it off. Not even deterred when we have to retake due to the Cardiff ironmongers shouting, ‘ANY OLD IRON!’ in the street or when someone’s neighbour decides to rather noisily hang a shelf.

Safe From Harm takes two whole days to record and it sounds incredible. The team is superb. The actors are amazing. The challenge of performing dialogue when you can’t look in the eyes of your co-actor is real, yet they perform the text with ease delivering lines which are palpable and naturalistic. I cry during the final scene - moved by the actors performances, relieved that we finally got here, overwhelmed by the year we’ve had and happy that my dream of becoming a real-life writer has finally materialised.

So, was recording my debut play the experience I had envisaged? No, definitely not. But then did anything turn out the way we thought it would in 2020? And anyway, I’m sure this is not the last radio play I’ll write. There’ll be other chances to record in that shiny, state of the art studio. I’m certain of it. And after a rather turbulent, tricky year this sure was a positive way to end 2020.

Safe From Harm will be aired on �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 on the 20th of Jan at 2:15pm and will be available on �鶹Լ�� Sounds for 30 days

Read this blog post in Welsh on the National Theatre of Wales website

Meet the first Wales Writer in Residence, Rhiannon Boyle, on our blog

Find out more about Rhiannon on her website

Meet the Wales Writer in Residence 2020/21

2020-12-07T10:58:40+00:00

Last night Faebian Averies found out she is our second Wales Writer in Residence with �鶹Լ�� Wales and National Theatre Wales, live on a �鶹Լ�� Radio Wales Arts Show special (listen on �鶹Լ�� Sounds). Find out more about Faebian below.

Faebian Averies with the Wales Writer in Residence Award

Why do you write?

I began pursuing writing properly in 2018 but have loved words ever since I can remember. I read a lot as a kid and alongside my three siblings, constantly made up stories and imaginative games. I went to Stanwell School in Penarth which had an amazing drama department and it was there that I realised that you can make up stories and act them out for a living.

When I graduated from studying drama at university, I found the realities of balancing pursuing acting and the need to work full time in a ‘normal’ job really difficult. I feel actors begin to create their own work for many different reasons but for me it was wanting to take back that control over my performances and to do my acting work justice again. Whilst pursuing writing for this reason, I realised that having to work full time was the best thing to have happened to me as I had unknowingly been building up a huge backlog of life experiences, which have laid the foundations for my characters and stories and worlds going forward.

I surprised myself with just how much I loved writing. Now writing isn’t just a vehicle for my acting but a passion completely on its own. I am writing more and more for other performers and spend hours tucked away with my head buried in my laptop.

What was your first writing success?

I feel that my two hander ‘Detention’ was my first writing success in 2018. I hired out the downstairs space in Little Man Coffee Co in Cardiff and did two nights, mostly to friends and family. However, we had a 5* review from Cardiff Theatre Review which gave me the confidence to know my work might have potential.

The Wales Writer in Residence is a partnership between �鶹Լ�� Writersroom, National Theatre Wales and �鶹Լ�� Cymru Wales

How did you find out about the Wales Writer in Residence and what made you want to apply?

In 2019 Helen Perry, �鶹Լ�� Writersroom's Development Producer in Wales, suggested I apply for the residency after she saw me perform at a scratch night run by Chippy Lane Productions. At that time I didn’t have anything substantial and didn’t make the cut but instead Helen invited me into the Welsh Voices �鶹Լ�� Writersroom 2019. On the first day I was just chuffed with the free pen and notebook and a year later I cannot believe the toolkit of writing skills I have been equipped with. 2019’s winner Rhiannon Boyle attended all of our �鶹Լ�� Writersroom sessions and her enthusiasm for Wales Writer in Residence encouraged me to re-apply. This time I submitted a script that was written by me applying the skills I’d learnt that year and I made it all the way to the end. A testament I feel to the training and encouragement I have received from the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom.

The �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Welsh Voices 2019/20

How did you come up with the idea for your winning script and the characters in the story?

I came up with the idea of my script from when I was selling my things at bootsales with my sister to save to move to London. The bootsales were full of life and so many funny things happened to us. There’s an odd sense of community there and strange politics unique to the place. I also wanted to show a sisterhood on screen and it just be about friendship and how that kind of love can often eclipse romantic love. I’m friends with a lot of funny women and I wanted that to be a large part of the show.

How important do you think it is to tell authentic Welsh stories?

I am passionate about telling Welsh stories and putting Wales on the map. I believe we have a rich cultural history that is often not represented on stage or screen. I find Scottish and Irish cinema to be beautiful and want Wales to hold the same Celtic torch in the U.K. I aim with the work I create to do the beauty of Wales and our experiences justice, showing parts of our country that people may not always know about.

This external content is available at its source: Watch as Faebian Averies finds out she is the new Wales Writer in Residence, live on �鶹Լ�� Radio Wales

What are the best things you’ve seen or heard this year.

During 2020, like many people, I was really devastated by the closure of our theatres and had moved to London partially to enjoy the west end and other spaces. I have watched a lot of amazing online theatre and NT and RSC re-runs of previous shows.

The best thing I saw in 2019 was The Bridge’s version of A Midsummer Nights Dream. I went with my housemates who aren’t involved in the arts and they were blown away. I think that’s theatre at its best, especially Shakespeare, when it’s accessible and gets your adrenaline going. They even played Beyoncé at the end!

What else have you got coming up?

In the new year I have a few projects coming up. Most notably I have been shortlisted for Masterclass Pitch Your Play at Theatre Royal Haymarket and will be pitching my play ‘Two Flats on Clifton street’ to a panel in the hopes I’ll get a week of R&D on the Haymarket stage ending in a rehearsed reading in front of invited industry professionals.

What does it mean to you to be the Wales Writer in Residence and what are you looking forward to about it?

I am both shocked and over the moon to have won The Wales Writer in Residence 2020 and really can’t thank the panel enough for giving me this opportunity. Writing can be solitary and at times you can be overcome with self-doubt, so to have your work read and enjoyed by a panel such as the Wales Writer in Residence judges is such a lovely feeling and I can’t wait to get started on all the amazing opportunities I know the placements will bring.

Find out more about the Wales Writer in Residence

Listen to the �鶹Լ�� Radio Wales Arts Show Special on �鶹Լ�� Sounds

Read Faebian's interview in Welsh on the National Theatre Wales website

Welsh Voices Monologues

2020-10-16T11:43:01+00:00

We love our Welsh Voices 19/20 group. They’re an immensely talented group of 15 writers who will undoubtedly go on to do brilliant things. At the start of the year we’d challenged them to create monologue pieces for live performance at Machynlleth Comedy Festival, before Covid hit and life turned upside down.

Not wanting to let good work go to waste we developed and made six of the pieces. As you’ll hear, the pieces subsequently shifted from outright comedies to encompassing a range of human emotion. They’re tales of loss, heartbreak, death and Bonnie Tyler – truly we blame Covid. Nevertheless they’re all thought provoking, life affirming and sure to make you smile and just a taste of what these six writers can do.

Listen to Would you Breastfeed a Potato?

Would you Breastfeed a Potato?

Written and performed by Faebian Averies

"Having worked in childcare for nearly a decade and being an aunt to a set of triplets, this is my bystander’s ode to parents everywhere.

'Would you Breastfeed a Potato?' tells the story of a woman who finds an abandoned baby. Instead of locating the mother, she keeps it, only to find out that there may have been a reason it was discarded in the first place."

Faebian was invited into �鶹Լ�� Welsh Voices following a showcase of her work with Chippy Lane Productions. Prior to the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom, Faebian had written a one act play, Detention, which received a five-star review on its opening night. Faebian has since had Detention Transferred, written for CLP’s podcast project and previewed her one woman show in London. During lockdown Faebian was invited onto a development scheme with Kiln Theatre and has had her work both longlisted and shortlisted by various companies. Most notably Faebian made the final 0.8% of applications for the �鶹Լ�� Comedy Room and has been longlisted for both Wales Writer in Residence and Masterclass at Theatre Royal Haymarket.

Listen to Jake Had Love

Jake had Love

written by Connor Allen and performed by Lloyd Everitt

"I wrote this piece after thinking how easy it would be to just splurge who you really are on a first date. Triumphs and insecurities. Lay it all out on the table and then you both know where you stand and if it’s something you want to pursue. But that would never happen. Would it?

Online dating can’t be that hard can it? Even for hopeless romantic Jake, who is still trying to get over his ex."

Since graduating from Trinity Saint David as an Actor, Connor has worked with many companies in Wales and beyond. He is a member of National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and was also the winner of TriForces’ Cardiff Monologue Slam. As a writer Connor has written for many companies such as Dirty Protest, National Theatre Wales and �鶹Լ�� Wales. Connor wrote Dom’s Drug Prayer for Sherman Theatre’s TEN / DEG series. He’s had an ACW funded debut play and two Literature Wales commissions. He’s also part of The Welsh Royal Court Writers Group.

Listen to 23.27

23.27

by Rhys J Edwards, performed by Siwan Morris

"Mari is a trainee-surgeon living with OCD. When a young boy suffers a cardiac arrest on her operating table, she battles to prove her condition is no barrier and desperately tries to save his life.

I was inspired by personal experience to write about Obsessive compulsive disorder and was particularly interested in writing a character that balanced their condition with working in high-pressured profession like medicine."

Rhys is a Cardiff-based writer who trained at RADA. In 2019, he was shortlisted for the �鶹Լ�� Wales Writer in Residence for his radio play Forget Her Not. His credits include: Forgetting Heledd (Camden Fringe Festival, 2019), Not John (RADA Festival, 2017), The Count of Monte Cristo (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2015) and the Radio Cardiff soap Sophia Square (2012-14).

Listen to Relight My Fire

Relight my Fire

written and performed by Sarah Louise Madden

"To rise from the ashes, Rhiannon must overcome her fear of being burnt and embrace the fire within.

Inspired by my own delightfully absent father, I wanted to explore how childhood demons can haunt our adult selves."

Sarah Louise Madden is a writer, actor and a recovering, secondary English teacher. She was long-listed for Wales Writer in Residence in both 2019 and 2020. This year, she was in the top 2% of entries for �鶹Լ�� Writersroom's Drama Room, the top 4% of the ITV Red Planet Prize and was a semi finalist in the Blue Cat International Screenplay Competition. She recently wrote for Sherman Theatre’s TEN series.

Listen to Rodri

Rodri

written and performed by Rhys Slade Jones

"Rodri's body doesn't quite fit. Rodri longs to live by the sea. Rodri is reeled into a spinning class and discovers that his legs are jelly. Literally.

The idea for Rodri came to me as I sweated and panted on the bank of the River Exe, after an afternoon of drinking at the beach and an ill advised spinning class."

Rhys Slade-Jones is an artist hailing from the south Welsh valleys. They create work that straddles craft, theatre and film. Balancing the line between the confrontational and the convivial, they make work that is fun, silly and full of heart.

Listen to Mandolin Gwen

Mandolin Gwen

written and performed by Remy Beasley

"This piece is called Mandolin Gwen. Gwen is a defiant, curious Welsh woman living in the 1700's whose bones and Bonnie Tyler are telling her there's more to life than living under patriarchal rule. And today is her wedding day. Or is it?

Mandolin Gwen was born moons ago when I was reading about Nos Calan Gaeaf which is historically seen as the first day of Winter in Wales. There was much superstition in the stories associated with single women being bad omens and tales of hags and witches. The story moved on but the character of Gwen stuck. A running theme for me, Gwen is a woman trying to liberate herself back to her wild, untamed ways."

Remy is an actor and writer, who trained at RWCMD. Since popping her cherry in 2016 for Welsh new writing company Dirty Protest, Remy has been developing work with numerous television production companies such as Sharon Horgan Merman, Ruth Jones at Tidy and currently has a development under option with Jax Media. Last year she performed her debut one-woman show ‘Do Our Best’ at Edinburgh festival, produced by Francesca Moody of Fleabag fame for which Remy gained rave reviews. From there she has had the opportunity to work on exciting projects including Mackenzie Crooks ‘Worzel Gummidge’ and this summer she wrote 'Unbound' for National Theatre Wales’ and Sherman Cymru's ‘Rituals’ project. She has been supported by new writing company Paines Plough and the inimitable Dirty Protest.

Find out more about the Welsh Voices

Listen to audio monologues from the Welsh Voices 2019

Meet the Welsh Voices 2019/20

2019-11-14T14:14:40+00:00

We’re delighted to announce the 3rd generation of Welsh Voices. Meet our 19/20 group. This talented bunch will be joining us on a year-long development programme consisting of masterclasses, workshops, industry introductions and bespoke writing opportunities. This year we’re joining forces with Sherman Theatre under the new artistic leadership of Joe Murphy, and will once again be working with Audio Drama Wales to provide our writers with the greatest breadth of knowledge across a portfolio of media. Most importantly the group is designed to create a supportive community for writers to come together in order to develop their best work. Make note of these names and faces. We guarantee you’ll be seeing more of them in the very near future....

Rick Allden

In 2010, Rick wrote a series of short radio plays for Berlin University that toured South Africa in a giant football. Rolling with it, he began to write short plays that have since been staged across the UK and US. In more recent years his plays have both lengthened and migrated homeward. Death and The Monster and Humanzee were staged at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff and Rachel and The Photographer at Blackwood Miners’ Institute. Rick also has several short stories published, and was shortlisted for Wales Writer in residence 2019 for his audio drama Moonlight Grey.

Rhys Slade Jones

Rhys is a bold emerging queer artist from the Rhondda valley, working cross-disciplinary through theatre, cabaret and craft. Winner of the inaugural COMMON Award in 2019, Rhys was supported by The Pleasance Theatre Trust to take their debut show The Land of My Fathers and Mothers and Some Other People to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it enjoyed critical success. Rhys learnt tits and teeth showmanship watching pub singers and psychic mediums in back rooms of rugby clubs. Rhys’ performances tread the line between cosy and confrontational, making work that’s fun, silly and full of heart.

Emily Burnett & Leyla Pope

Emily and Leyla started writing together after their individual scripts were shortlisted for It’s My Shout / �鶹Լ�� Writersroom 2018. Together, they kindled a relationship based on the hope of telling wholly inclusive stories with a diverse range of characters. With close family and friends as the impetus to highlight the importance of these stories, Leyla and Emily are passionate about female led, disability aware, multigenerational storytelling. This can be seen in the script they are currently developing, Going Country.

Elgan Rhys

Elgan Rhys is a Cardiff-based writer-director-performer, Co-Artistic Director of Cwmni. Pluen Company, and Associate Artist at Frân Wen. Elgan’s play Woof at the Sherman Theatre, was described by The Guardian as “a triumph”. Pluen’s most recent production, Mags, which Elgan wrote, toured Wales and London and was described by Wales-Arts-Review as “a fearless play.” Recurring elements in his work are the amplification of young people’s voices and telling stories of contemporary queer life.

Sion Edwards

Sion is a bilingual writer from Dolgellau in North Wales. Sion’s sitcom Halfway was shortlisted for the �鶹Լ�� wales / Writersroom Find Me Funny initiative. Subsequently it was produced and broadcast in 2018 across multiple platforms as part of �鶹Լ�� Wales’ Festival of Funny. Sion was then selected for the six month development scheme �鶹Լ�� Writersroom - Comedy Room 2018. Sion has written short plays for Dirty Protest Theatre, which were performed at the Galeri in Caernarfon, Eisteddfod in Cardiff and at Machynlleth Comedy Festival. Currently Sion is working on a new ideas for radio sitcoms or podcasts.

Sarah Louise Madden

Sarah Louise is an actor and former secondary English teacher. On a longshot Sarah entered the Wales Writer in Residence 2019 and was subsequently longlisted for her drama You, the Jury: a provocative script about domestic abuse, gender, presumptions and justice. This acknowledgement has given sarah the confidence to transform her writing from a hobby, to putting her voice out there and finally articulating what she’s always wanted to say.

Rachel Harper

Born and raised in Wrexham, Rachel initially trained as an actress and fight performer. After graduating she formed MISSMANAGED THEATRE COMPANY. Her first play The Edinburgh Test was shortlisted for the Charlie Hartill special reserve fund. Her following play Bounce was long listed for the Papa Tango prize. Rachel made her full length debut with Rattled at The Old Red Lion Theatre, a one woman show performed by herself for which she received an Offie Nomination for Best Female Performance. Rachel is currently developing several projects for film and TV.

Connor Allen

Connor is an actor and writer from Newport who began writing in 2015 for an National Theatre Wales event; Stories of the Streets. Subsequently he has written short plays for companies such as Dirty Protest, Fio, No Boundries and Avant Theatre. Connor is currently working on his full length debut play Working Not Begging which will be in production in 2020. Connor is also part of the Gary Owen/Royal Court - Welsh Writers Programme.

Alexandria Riley

Alexandria is an actor and writer based in Newport. Alex started writing at University and her first drama "What About Love" was performed at Dolman Theatre Newport. Subsequently she wrote four shows for a local performing arts group, all of which sold out at "The Riverfront Theatre" - Romeo and Juliet - the streets, Make or Break, Sisters Acting Up, and Hard Knock Life. Most recently Alex wrote and appeared in her own documentary Mixed which aired on �鶹Լ�� One Wales and �鶹Լ�� iPlayer. She’s also written an episode of Torchwood for their audiobook series named A Mothers Love.

Jodie Ashdown

Jodie has had two short films produced, Leonard's Neighbours (It's My Shout, Best Film, 2016) and one minute film The Machine (Focus Shift Films, shown at BAFTA qualifying festivals). She also has another two in pre-production. Her first feature script, Walnut, made it through to the penultimate round of the 2018 �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Drama call out and she is currently writing her second TV pilot, Fathom. Jodie is currently a story editor on Casualty as well as a freelance script editor. She is a script mentor for It's My Shout and is on their board of directors

Rhiannon Boyle

In 2007 Rhiannon became Dirty Protest Theatre's first ever ‘Cherry Popper.’ Subsequently she has written many plays including - The Whole Truth, Latitude Festival, Un bach Arall, National Eisteddfod, Kindness, WMC, Druggie, Edinburgh Fringe 2019 and Disquiet at The Other Room. Screenwriting credits include S4C’s Gwaith Cartref and children’s comedy sketch show Cacamwnci. Rhiannon was awarded the inaugural Wales Writer in Residence 2019. Her winning script, Because of Him has been commissioned for broadcast on �鶹Լ�� Radio 4. She is currently on a 6 month bursary with �鶹Լ�� Wales before beginning a 6 month residency with National Theatre Wales.

Faebian Averies

Faebian is an actor who began writing in 2018. Her debut play Detention enjoyed sell-out runs in both Cardiff and London, achieving a 5* review on opening night and has now been picked up by a company in residence in Croydon. A section of Faebian’s one woman show Two Flats on Clifton Street was selected to be performed at Chippy Lane’s ‘Who Run the World?’ event. It gained interest from industry professionals and has since been performed in its entirety in London.

Cameron Loxdale

Cameron is a comedy writer from Swansea who has written for several �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 shows including The News Quiz, Breaking the News and Newsjack. He co-created The Royal Winthorpe Museum Podcast and his sitcom script Gaffer reached the final of the David Nobbs Memorial Trust competition. Cameron writes and produces sketches, short films and podcasts. In 2019 he formed Encouraging Productions with the aim of making original comedy to get excited about. Cameron is currently working on comedy ideas for TV and radio.

Rhys J. Edwards

Rhys trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating with an MA in Text and Performance in 2017. He has written and directed various projects in theatre and audio drama. His credits include, Not John at the Gielgud Theatre (RADA Festival, 2017), The Count of Monte Cristo at Merchants Hall (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2015) and Insane Assumptions at the Mike Barlow Theatre (Cardiff, 2013). He also co-created and wrote numerous episodes of the Radio Cardiff soap Sophia Square. Rhys was shortlisted for the Wales Writer in Residence 2019 with his script Forget Her Not.

Remy Beasley

Remy is an actor and writer, who trained at RWCMD. Since popping her cherry for Dirty Protest in 2016 Remy has been developing work with numerous television production companies such as Sharon Horgan’s Merman and with Ruth Jones at Tidy. This year she performed her debut one-woman show Do Our Best at Edinburgh festival, for which she gained rave reviews. She has been supported by new writing company Paines Plough and the inimitable Dirty Protest . Remy is currently working on a TV project headed by Mackenzie Crook for the �鶹Լ��.

Welsh Voices is an invitational only development group. Writers are selected in conjunction with our partner organisations and predominantly chosen via their submissions to �鶹Լ�� Writersroom initiatives.

Find out more about �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Wales

Welsh Voices 2018/19

2019-07-10T11:01:50+00:00

ARCHIVED JULY 2019 - All info current to day of archiving. For latest news on the writers below, please get in touch with Writersroom Wales

Over the last ten months we’ve been supporting a talented group of writers, affectionately known to us as Welsh Voices 18/19 . Run in partnership this year with National Theatre Wales and Radio Drama Wales, Welsh Voices is our invitational development group which meets monthly for masterclasses, workshops and industry insight. More than that it’s a creative community and a space for writers to come together.

We’ve loved getting to know our Welsh Voices 18/19 and we would like you to know them better too. Hence why we asked them all to create a short audio monologue to give you just a flavour of their writing. You can hear those pieces below.

Listen to An Attempt on the Life of Shirley Temple - written by Catherine Dyson, performed by Nia Roberts

Catherine Dyson

Catherine is a writer and performer. Recent writing credits include Transporter, a solo show which she’s performed in London, Kolkata, and it’s currently touring Wales. It is being translated into German for production in Austria.
Catherine is Associate Artist with RedCape Theatre company for whom she has written two plays, Be Brave and Leave For the Unknown and black comedy Thunder Road, both of which toured the UK. Due to its success , Thunder Road will tour again later this year. Other projects in development include a musical for the Riverfront Theatre Newport.

For radio Catherine has written If We Were Fish (�鶹Լ�� Radio Wales). Her short film script Hold Me Down was shortlisted for the Ffilm Cymru Beacons award. She has been part of two artist development projects with National Theatre Wales and was part of the Sherman New Welsh Playwright's Programme 2016.

Listen to Valerie - written by Kevin Jones, performed by Siw Hugh.

Kevin Jones

Kevin's plays have been performed in Dublin, Amsterdam, New York, Connecticut, Oregon, Washington, Albuquerque and Hawaii. His most successful short play, The Lunchbreak Manifesto was performed at The Producers Club, off-off Broadway.

In the UK his short plays have been performed in London, in venues such as Southwark Playhouse (The Little Pieces of Gold Showcase) and Tristan Bates Theatre (The Significant Other Festival). His one-woman show Izzy’s Manifestos was performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017. Another solo show Cardiff Boy, was Chippy Lane's winner the same year. The play went on to have a run at The Other Room in 2018 (British Theatre Guide's "Wales' hit of the year.") An earlier play Shed Man was part of the Camden Fringe in 2016 and had a second production at the Sherman Theatre 2018.
Kevin has written and directed for �鶹Լ�� Wales’ “It’s My Shout”. As a twice Bafta Cymru nominated post-production drama editor, he has worked on Hinterland and Keeping Faith.

The Mountain - written by Anna-Lisa Jenaer, performed by Robert Pugh.

Anna-Lisa Jenaer

Anna-Lisa started her career in international TV sales before turning to writing in 2009. She is on the writing team of the �鶹Լ�� Welsh language continuing drama, Pobol y Cwm and has written over 60 episodes to date. Along with one of her writing partners, Bethan Davies, she was recently commissioned to write a five-part comedy series for �鶹Լ�� Radio Cymru. She is currently developing a gritty crime series for S4C and a more light-hearted crime series for a London producer. Anna-Lisa takes a regular break from crime to write animation and has worked for various national and international broadcasters, including CBeebies, Channel 5 and PBS Sprout.

Listen to Bendy Bus - written and performed by Kyle Lima.

Kyle Lima

Kyle is an actor and writer who began his writing career in 2007 when he created a one-man show, Heart and Soul inspired by generations of his own family; spanning Cape Verde to Cardiff. The show moved from Royal Welsh college of Drama to Wales Millennium Centre and is being developed for TV.

Kyle’s written and performed his own plays for Undeb theatre, and wrote and performed Choke, Ernie and Chickity a short three man play about 1950’s Butetown for Wales Black History Month which at the RWCMD in 2011. This year Kyle’s been developing work with The Other Room theatre (12 plays of Christmas) and Talking Shop for Omidaz in association with National Theatre Wales and Dirty Protest Theatre.

Listen to Clouds - written and performed by Emily White.

Emily White

Emily is an emerging screenwriter and playwright. She originally trained as an actress at RADA before changing tack and obtaining an MA in Theatre writing at the University of York in 2015.
In 2018 she won a place on the Channel 4 Screenwriting Course where she developed her pilot Land of My Fathers about a Syrian refugee coming to live in a small Welsh town. This pilot has got her meetings with some of the top production companies in the country and she has been selected for interview at the end of June by �鶹Լ�� Drama Room 2020. She is also writing a digital theatre piece for Wrapt Films/Open Sky Theatre.
Her play Pavilion will receive its world premiere at Theatr Clwyd in Sept-Oct this year and will be directed by the Olivier award winning director Tamara Harvey.

Listen to Living Life to the Full - written by Durre Shahwar, performed by Rasheeda Ali.

Durre Shahwar

urre is a writer, a creative practitioner and an Associate Editor for Wales Arts Review. She is co-founder of Where I’m Coming From an open mic that promotes BAME writing in Wales. In 2017, she was a Word Factory Apprentice, mentored by Alexei Sayle. In 2018, she was part of the Hay Writers at Work scheme. Durre is currently doing her PhD in Creative Writing at Cardiff University. Her work has been published in various magazines and anthologies including Know Your Place: Essays on the Working Class (2017, Dead Ink Books), Cheval 10 – Terry Hetherington Young Writers Award (2017, Parthian Books), We Shall Fight Until We Win (2018, 404 Ink). Durre has worked and written for companies such as National Theatre Wales, British Council Wales, and the Metro. She is also a regular speaker and performer at various events and festivals.

Listen to Cuckoo - written by Greg Glover, performed by Sion Daniel Young

Greg Glover

Greg lives in Newport. He has had a number of plays including Beasts and Family performed at the Bristol Old Vic, Mark of the Man, Two Sons at Sherman Cymru, which was also the winner of Script Slam and Jumping to Conclusions at The Riverfront. He has also had two pieces performed by Dirty Protest and short plays put on in The Old Red Lion Theatre and Theatr Clywd. He has recently won the Chippy and Scratch Best Playwright award at Theatre 503 with Black and White. He has written three short films as part of It’s My Shout, The Shirt, Be a Man and Monster, which were broadcast on �鶹Լ�� Wales.

Listen to Gina, Bacon & Eggs - written by Simon Howells, performed by Gareth Jewell.

Simon Howells

Simon has been a professional actor for over twenty years and has been writing seriously since 2004. Simon’s short screenplay ‘They Might Be Giants’ was broadcast on ITV Wales for the 2006 It’s My Shout film scheme, winning a number of awards. In 2007 he set up Unrelated Films, an independent production company. He penned four short under this banner, attaining a number of festival screenings, including Encounters, Bristol. In 2013 he worked alongside Yellobrick to develop ‘Everwake’, an interactive street game. More recently Simon graduated with a Master’s Degree (distinction) in Creative Writing from Swansea University and has received Arts Council of Wales R&D funding for his play ‘Blood Sugar’. His short screenplay ‘Sit Bangor’ will be produced for It’s My Shout 2019. With a number of projects in development Simon has built up an extensive portfolio of radio, stage and screenplays, encompassing comedy, drama, thriller and horror.

Listen to With Bits - written and performed by Leila Navabi

Leila Navabi

Leila is a 20 year-old writer, comedian and actor from Wales.
Having begun her career at MTV, she has since gone on to write for MTV, Comedy Central, E4, and the �鶹Լ��. Most recently she began penning material for �鶹Լ�� Wales’ “Tourist Trap” starring Sally Phillips, which will TX in the coming Autumn.
A brown, queer woman, she is an activist for both BAME and LGBTQ+ rights, and believes unless narratives represent an equal cross-section of our society, the best tales will remain untold.
She also spends many evenings performing stand-up comedy. Leila has appeared on-screen as herself for MTV, Comedy Central and �鶹Լ�� Sesh having worked extensively across their online video platforms.

Listen to Good with People - written by Sam Bees, performed by Gareth Pierce

Sam Bees

Sam Bees hails from Treorchy in the Rhondda Valley.
He studied acting at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and since his graduation in 2007 has turned his hand to writing.
Since his first production ‘In the River’ for Dirty Protest Theatre Company in 2008 at The Sherman, he has had over 20 works produced, including a recent co-production with Theatre 503 and The Other Room Theatre, ‘Meatman’.
TV credits include ‘Mari’ a short film which was part of �鶹Լ�� Wales’ comedy drama Outsiders which TX’d in October 2018.
He is a published author and poet.

Listen to 2500 Miles of Awkward - written and performed by Carys Eleri.

Carys Eleri

Carys is an award-winning writer, actress, singer and composer. She has an array of accomplishments to her name including: Winner of the �鶹Լ��’s Norman Beaton Fellowship, winner of Best Actress Wales Theatre Awards, BAFTA Cymru Nominee for Best Actress. Most recently her debut stage show as writer and performer ‘Lovecraft (Not the sex shop in Cardiff) won Best Cabaret award at the Adelaide Fringe, Best Small production for ‘British Theatre Guide,’ along with wide critical acclaim. The show is a one-woman-comedy-science-musical based on the neuroscience of love and loneliness and is scheduled for a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe followed by a national tour in the Autumn. She is currently developing it for television with Severn Screen productions (Hinterland, Hidden, Apostle). She has recently been commissioned to write a series of comedy pop-videos for S4C. Her radio documentary ‘My Week’ was recently nominated and came ‘highly commended’ at the Celtic Media Festival awards.

Welsh Voices is an annual invitation-only group. Writers are selected based on the work they’ve submitted into �鶹Լ�� Writersroom schemes and open opportunities, talent scouting and recommendations from our partnering companies.

The Welsh Voices 19/20 will be introduced in the Autumn of this year.

Find out more about �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Wales

�鶹Լ�� Writersroom Wales: The Last Six Months...

2018-06-21T10:25:05+00:00

New Year, New Team

2018 started with a bang – since the New Year �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Wales has had a new team. Helen Perry joined as Development Producer and Emily Angell as Development Coordinator. We have been busy travelling the country meeting people, attending screenings, and running events waving the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Wales flag.

It’s been an exciting start to the year; we have a number of schemes in the pipeline and many schemes underway already.

The cast of Outsiders during the shoot

Outsiders

Shooting is complete on Outsiders, a series of five short-form comedy dramas with a musical element (we like a challenge) dealing with mental health issues young people face.

Produced by �鶹Լ�� Writersroom and Boom Cymru, the shorts stand alone as 5 minute episodes and will play out on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer. They can also be enjoyed as a single 30 minute comedy drama which will air on �鶹Լ�� Wales.

Outsiders has been developed by �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Wales and is written by five talented emerging Welsh comedy writers - Alan Harris, Amy Howerksa, Darragh Mortell, Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Sam Bees. It also features new local acting talent. We’re extremely proud of it, it’s a hugely ambitious piece and we are looking forward to sharing it with the world.

One of our Welsh Voices sessions in action

Working with Writers

This year we created an invitational group, lovingly called Welsh Voices, made up of the writers across a spectrum of experience who we are specifically championing and developing. We meet monthly for masterclasses, workshops and creative discussion sessions. Each year we hope to refresh our intake of writers to Welsh Voices. The aim of the group is as much about creating a sense of community amongst writers in Wales as anything else. But we’re happy to say there have been tangible outcomes from the process – for example we’ve facilitated bursaries for writers on projects such as ‘Tourist Trap’ with The Comedy Unit and with the �鶹Լ�� innovation team.

Find Me Funny Script in Hand Readthrough. (photo credit: Huw John)

Find Me Funny

We ran a comedy pilot initiative with �鶹Լ�� Cymru Wales, Find Me Funny, aimed at discovering up to three new sit-coms for �鶹Լ�� One Wales and �鶹Լ�� iPlayer. From just under 350 submissions (349 to be exact!) we now have our shortlist of 8.

At the start of March we organised the Find Me Funny Showcase, during which extracts from our 8 shortlisted scripts were performed by a cast of incredible Welsh actors. These extracts were performed to an audience of commissioners, producers, production companies, writers and other industry experts. It was a chance for us to celebrate the new talent the scheme had uncovered and for all 8 shortlisted writers to meet with programme/decision makers.

Philip Shelley leading the Writersroom Wales Workshop for It's My Shout 2018

It's My Shout

For the second year running, �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Wales partnered with Its My Shout during the shortlisting and development of submissions for their annual training scheme.

We ran a 2 day intensive writers' workshop where we were joined by script consultant Philip Shelley to develop the shortlisted scripts with writers. Each successful candidate's script will be brought to life in a 10-15 minute film which will be shot over Summer 2018 and broadcast on �鶹Լ�� Wales or S4C.

Matthew Hall and Helen Perry at Digital Cities Cardiff

Out and About: Sessions Around the Country

In February, we ran an exclusive hour long session ‘The Art of Storytelling’ at Digital Cities Cardiff 2018

We were joined by Welsh writer Matthew Hall, creative genius behind the new 8-part thriller series 'Keeping Faith' for �鶹Լ�� Wales for a Q&A session that explored key elements of drama writing such as character, structure, dialogue and genre. Matthew discussed his journey as a writer, along with how to find emotion and inspiration for writing. Scripts for ‘Keeping Faith’/’ Un Bore Mercher’ can be found in our Script Library and it's exciting news that the series is now coming to �鶹Լ�� One network.

�鶹Լ�� Writersroom Wales were also at Machynlleth Comedy Festival over the early May Bank Holiday where we were joined by �鶹Լ�� Wales Comedy Commissioner Paul Forde, writers Kiri Pritchard-Mclean, Beth Granville, and Sian Harries and Sarah Asante, Assistant Commissioner for �鶹Լ�� Comedy for a session titled ‘Breaking into Comedy’. During the discussion we looked at ways in which new writers can kick start their comedy careers with the �鶹Լ�� and shared top tips and practical advice.

June saw �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Wales join the Craft of Comedy festival in Llandudno. Craft of Comedy UK is the annual comedy ‘party conference’ at the seaside. There we delivered two sessions – the first addressed the basics of sit-com writing, dissecting an episode of Derry Girls to prove our points. We also discovered that that particular episode was structured exactly like a Shakespearean 5 act tragedy. Who knew! We also hosted a panel discussion to examine the Writer / Producer relationship; why it matters, how do you forge a successful working relationship, or can / should writers go it alone. We were joined on that panel by Amanda Farley (�鶹Լ�� Writersroom), comedy writers Gareth Gwyn and Gemma Arrowsmith and producer Lyndsay Fenner.

Watch 'Porta-lols' written by Kirsty Roderick and starring Ellen Jane Thomas. Music by �鶹Լ�� Introducing act CHROMA. Filmed at Singleton Park, Swansea.

Biggest Weekend Music Monologue

We were delighted to be part of this scheme which offered new writers the chance to gain their first �鶹Լ�� writing credit. Joining forces with The Biggest Weekend we put a call out for 60 second comedy monologue scripts based on the theme of festivals. As �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Wales we looked after submissions inspired by the Biggest Weekend Swansea site and line up. After whittling down the submissions we ran a two day workshop with the 11 shortlisted writers. The workshop focused on writing short form online content and gave the writers the chance to redraft their scripts with notes from development producer, Helen Perry.

Kirsty Roderick‘s script ‘Porta-lols’ was then shot on location with at Swansea’s Singleton Park with local actress Ellen Jane Thomas and features music by �鶹Լ�� Introducing act Chroma. ‘Porta-lols’ premiered on the live event screen at The Biggest Weekend festival Swansea and has been published across selected �鶹Լ�� sites and Social Media.

Hartswood West Writers' Award

Hartswood is an independent production company based in London and Cardiff, that works with exceptional talent across drama and comedy. Best known for the global hit Sherlock, recent credits include Lady Chatterley's Lover, Edge of Heaven, The Guilty, and the forthcoming Dracula.

We've partnered up with Hartswood West in Cardiff and Creative Skillset to find and develop the most exciting, up-and-coming TV writers with a strong connection to Wales through the Hartswood West Writers' Award. We are looking to invest in two ambitious new writers and develop their ideas to initially pitch to the �鶹Լ��. We are looking for ambitious scripts and distinctive voices. Drama or Comedy, we are open to anything that reflects how you write.

This fantastic opportunity is open to Welsh writers, those living and working in Wales, and also those who can authentically depict Welsh stories and Welsh characters and reflect the culture of Wales in their writing. Find out more here and apply by 10am on Monday 2nd July 2018.

Haunted House

Following a workshop with �鶹Լ�� Innovation, playwright (and member of Welsh Voices 17/18) Brad Birch has been commissioned to write Haunted House’ (working title), a 30 minute immersive audio Halloween drama for �鶹Լ�� Taster. We’ll be working closely with �鶹Լ�� Research and Development to create a cutting edge drama using pioneering technology that can enable stories to play out over multiple home devices, possibly interact with the audience and also potentially include augmented reality visuals.

So that’s what we’ve been up to over the last 6 months. But to find out what we’ve got coming up please keep checking the Opportunities page of the website. We’re extremely proud to be championing talent and stories from Wales and we’re committed to keep hunting for new voices, to supporting writers and to finding platforms to showcase the very best of Welsh comedy and drama.

Meet the Welsh Voices 2017/18

2018-01-14T14:18:00+00:00

The Welsh Voices 2017/18

We’re delighted to announce the very first generation of Welsh Voices, a writers group for invited Welsh or Wales-based writers with the aim of getting commissioned scripts. This talented bunch will be joining us on a year-long development programme consisting of masterclasses, workshops, industry introductions and bespoke writing opportunities.

RACHEL TREZISE

Rachel Trezise’s debut novel In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl won a place on the Orange Futures List in 2002. In 2006 her first short fiction collection Fresh Apples won the Dylan Thomas Prize. Her second short fiction collection Cosmic Latte, won the Edge Hill Prize Readers Award in 2014. Her first play Tonypandemonium was produced by National Theatre Wales in 2013. The script was published in Bloomsbury's Contemporary Welsh Plays. Her second play for National Theatre Wales & Common Wealth Theatre, We’re Still Here, premiered in September 2017. Her debut novel is about to be reissued in the Library of Wales series. A novel called Wonderful is forthcoming. She’s currently working on a third short fiction collection and a new theatre production with RCT Theatres. Rachel has written drama for Radio 4 (Lemon Meringue Pie) and Radio Wales (Driving �鶹Լ�� for Christmas).

DARRAGH MORTELL

Darragh is a London based, Welsh award winning film director and �鶹Լ�� commissioned writer. He cites his biggest filmmaking influences as Charlie Kaufman and Spike Lee for their unique takes on the world, mixing social realism and surrealism to great cinematic effect. Darragh’s political satire Donald Mohammed Trump garnered praise from news outlets on both sides of the pond aswell as receiving multiple screenings including one at BFI Southbank. His East London musical comedy focused on diversity (Beauty in the Street) also earned critical success and reached 30 thousand online views in just a few days.

Darragh has recently been commissioned by �鶹Լ�� Writersroom to write a comedy drama short on Mental Health for �鶹Լ�� iplayer which will also play out as part of a longer half hour on �鶹Լ�� Wales. He is also part of the writing team on a new audio podcast series which is being developed by �鶹Լ�� Writersroom in collaboration with Jessica Dromgoole for �鶹Լ��3.

LUCY RIVERS

Lucy is a writer, composer, actor, and musician, and is co-founder of the multi-award-winning Cardiff-based Theatre company Gagglebabble. For Gagglebabble she has written and performed in; SINNERS CLUB (The Other Room, Theatr Clwyd, Soho Theatre), WONDERMAN (National Theatre Wales and Wales Millennium Centre), THE FORSYTHE SISTERS (Chapter), and THE BLOODY BALLAD (Theatr Iolo) which won her six awards including best Music and Musical at MTN What’s On Stage awards and Brighton Fringe award for Best Emerging talent. Other writing credits include; THE DEVIL’S VIOLIN (�鶹Լ�� Radio 4), LITTLE SURE SHOT (The Egg and West Yorkshire Playhouse) and FALLOUT (The Other Room Young People’s Festival).

BRAD BIRCH

Brad Birch is a multi-award winning playwright whose work has been produced across Europe, Russia and the USA. His plays include: The Brink (Orange Tree Theatre); Black Mountain (Paines Plough); Gardening for the Unfulfilled and Alienated (Undeb); Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against A Brick Wall (Soho Theatre); The Endless Ocean (RWCMD). His adaptations include: An Enemy of the People (RWCMD/Guthrie Theater) and The Metamorphoses (RSC). In 2016 he was the recipient of the Harold Pinter Commission at the Royal Court. Brad is keen to move into screenwriting and has just been selected for Philip Shelley’s Channel 4 screenwriting programme. Brad is a radio drama enthusiast.

KATHERINE CHANDLER

Katherine is an award winning Welsh stage and screenwriter whose work has been produced by companies such as the �鶹Լ��, Blue Angel Films, Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, Clean Break Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Sherman Theatre and the National Theatre of Wales.

Katherine was twice a finalist for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn award for ‘Parallel Lines’ which was produced by Dirty protest and was is a winner of the �鶹Լ�� and National Theatre Wales inaugural Wales Drama Award, a Creative Wales Award and a Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting for her play ‘Bird’.

Most recently her script Tag has been selected as part of the iPlayer shorts scheme for �鶹Լ�� developed by �鶹Լ�� Studios Drama in London.

MATT HARTLEY

Matt studied Drama at the University of Hull and now lives with his family in Cardiff. Matt’s first play Sixty Five Miles won a Bruntwood Award in the inaugural Bruntwood Competition and was produced by Paines Plough/Hull Truck. Matt's recent plays Here I Belong (Pentabus Theatre) and Deposit (Hampstead Theatre) have both been brought back and had extended runs due to popular demand and critical acclaim. Other work for theatre includes: Myth ( RSC) ; Horizon (National Theatre Connections); Microcosm (Soho Theatre) The Bee (Edinburgh Festival); Punch (Hampstead / Heat and Light Company); Epic, Trolls, Life for Beginners (Theatre503). Radio credits include: The Pursuit (nominated for the Imison Award) and Final Call ( Radio 4).

Matt worked as a storyliner and wrote several episodes of Hollyoaks for Channel 4. Matt’s work is regularly performed in Europe and his play Burning Cars, which won the Best Foreign Play at the French Theatre Awards, will receive it’s world premier in Paris in 2018. Matt is currently writing new plays for the Hampstead Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Sherman and his new epic play Eyam will be performed at Shakespeare’s Globe in Sept 2018.

HUW DAVIES

Huw Davies grew up in Nantyffyllon, near Maesteg. His first piece of fiction was a ‘daft book for boys’ titled Scrambled and was short-listed for the Heart of Hawick Children's Literature Award. He has adapted Scrambled into his first screenplay – a warm coming of age comedy drama set in a close knit welsh community. The script was shortlisted for this years �鶹Լ�� Drama room and Writersroom Wales are currently developing him. Huw writes in Welsh and English.

ALAN HARRIS

Alan is one of the most distinctive theatre writers working in Wales at the moment. Born and bought up in Llantrisant South Wales, he’s been a prolific writer for theatre since 2010 with plays such as A Good Night out in The Valleys for the National Theatre Wales, How My Light Is Spent which won the Judges award at the Bruntwood prize and Sugarbaby which received rave reviews at Edinburgh this year.

John McGrath directed his The Opportunity of Efficiency at the New National Theatre Tokyo (a collaboration with National Theatre Wales) and other writing credits include: A Scythe Of Time (New York Musical Festival), The Future For Beginners (liveartshow/Wales Millennium Centre), Marsha (Capital Fringe, Washington DC), A Good Night Out in the Valleys (National Theatre Wales), Rhinegold, Manga Sister (both for liveartshow at The Yard, London), The Journey (Welsh National Opera MAX), Cardboard Dad (Sherman Cymru), Miss Brown To You (Hijinx Theatre), and Orange (Sgript Cymru).

He has written several plays for �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 and Radio 3. He is also part of the 2017 �鶹Լ�� Drama Room scheme and Doctors Shadow scheme. �鶹Լ�� writersroom Wales have also commissioned him to write a comedy drama short on Mental health for �鶹Լ�� Wales.

FFLUR DAFYDD

Fflur Dafydd is an award winning writer who writes in Welsh and English. She is the creator and writer of all 24 episodes of PARCH, the popular returning BAFTA Cymru nominated series for S4C, which is now in its third series. She is the writer and co-producer of the feature film Y Llyfrgell/The Library Suicides, based on her own book which was released in 2016, which won the Best Performance Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival as well as a BAFTA Cymru for best director and a BAFTA Cymru Nomination for Best Writer. She is also the co-director of Ffilm Ffolyn, a film production company she founded with multi award winning director Euros Lyn. In 2016 she was longlisted for a BIFA for debut screenwriter and in 2017 received a BAFTA Cymru nomination for best writer.

She is also a novelist and singer songwriter. Her novel ‘Twenty Thousand Saints’ won the Emerging Writer award at the Hay Festival in 2009, and she became an International Fellow of the Hay Festival in 2013. She has also participated in Iowa University’s world renowned International Writing Program, and is a graduate of UEA’s creative writing course.
Her current project is '35 Awr' (35 hours), an eight part thriller which will be broadcast on S4C in November 2018. She is also developing her second feature film with support from Ffilm Cymru Wales, and developing a theatre piece with Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru.

DAF JAMES

Daf is an award-winning writer, composer and performer, working in theatre, radio and television in both English and Welsh. His first full-length play Llwyth [Tribe] became a Welsh-language cultural phenomenon and established him as one of the most exciting dramatists working in Wales.

His stage show My Name is Sue, co-written with Ben Lewis, won a Total Theatre Award for Music and Theatre. He has also written plays for National Theatre Wales, the National Theatre and is now developing a new play, The Diana Chronicles, co-commissioned by the Sherman Theatre, Theatr Clwyd and the Royal Court.

Radio credits include My Mother Taught Me How to Sing and Terrace. Screen credits include Crackanory, Psychobitches and Gwaith/Cartref (10 episodes); and he is currently developing an original show, Beast, with Scott Free Productions and Channel 4.

Daf is also a composer and has written the score for Tiger Bay, a large scale musical, co-produced by the Wales Millennium Centre and Cape Town Opera, which opens in Cardiff in November.

BEN PARTRIDGE

Benjamin is primarily a comedy writer who has written for C�鶹Լ��'s Horrible Histories, Channel 4's The Last Leg and also writes and produces the Beef and Dairy Network Podcast, which won Best Comedy at the British Podcast Awards in 2017 and was picked up by �鶹Լ�� Radio 4.

On �鶹Լ�� Radio Wales he writes the sitcom The Accidental AM, is one of the cast and a co-writer of Elis James's Pantheon of Heroes and he also co-wrote and produced Here Be Dragons, which won Bronze at the Radio Academy Awards in 2014. Amongst his other writing credits are The News Quiz, Rich Hall's Election Breakdown and Small Scenes for �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 and script editing Newsjack for �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 Extra. A sitcom that Partridge co-wrote with Gareth Gwynn, Ankle Tag, was broadcast on�鶹Լ�� Radio 4 in 2017.

SIÂN OWEN

Siân Owen has won the Oxford Playhouse New Writing Competition and she has been on attachment with Sherman Cymru on their Advanced Writers Group and has been part of the Royal Court Studio Group. She has written for Dirty Protest, The Other Room and Theatre 503. Her play This Land for Pentabus and Salisbury Playhouse toured nationally in 2016. She is currently under commission by Box of Tricks Theatre Company and �鶹Լ�� Radio 4 for her first afternoon drama Pieces.

ALYN FARROW

Alyn’s first short film, The Homing Bird was produced by �鶹Լ�� Wales and It’s My Shout Productions, and subsequently nominated for a BAFTA Cymru Award (Best Short).

Alyn was runner up for the �鶹Լ�� Wales Drama Award and was commissioned to write treatments for two original dramas - Clandestine and Westphalia. A pilot script for Westphalia was subsequently commissioned and developed for �鶹Լ�� Wales Drama between April 2015 and November 2016. In December 2016 he was shortlisted for the 4Stories Chanel 4 Drama scheme, and earlier this year he was listed as a winner of the BAFTA Rocliffe TV Drama Showcase for his latest script, The Hand That Mocked Them. Alyn is currently on the �鶹Լ�� Writersroom Drama Room programme.

FOSTER MARKS

Foster began his writing career in film – writing shorts and features. In search of new material Foster joined the Territorial Army and specialised as a radio operator, going on to serve two tours of Helmand province, Afghanistan. His experience there inspired him to write his first stage play ‘the Sanger’. On his return to the UK he completed the first draft and submitted it to Sherman Cymru who picked it up for development and invited Foster to join their advanced writers programme, and ‘the Sanger’ was produced as part of the Sheman Theatre's RAW season. Foster has since completed his second play and is working on new film and television projects.
More success in writing competitions followed being selected as a finalist for the Touch Paper TV annual writing competition, the Red Planet new writing initiative, the Tri-force creative network writing slam and twice selected for the �鶹Լ�� Writers Room mentorship programme.

TIM PRICE

Tim Price started out writing for theatre and is co-founder of Cardiff underground theatre company Dirty Protest. His television credits include: Switch, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Sold! The New Worst Witch (ITV), The Smoke (Sky), Eastenders, Holby City, Casualty, Doctors, River City (�鶹Լ��) Caerdydd, Y Pris (S4C, nominated for Bafta Cymru best screenwriter, winner of Best drama at Celtic Film and TV Festival 2009. Best drama nomination for Prix Europa 2008.) Tim's theatre credits include: Candylion, the insatiable inflatable (National Theatre Wales), The Internet is Serious Business (Royal Court), Protest Song (National Theatre), I'm With the Band (Traverse theatre/Wales Millennium Centre tour) Praxis Makes Perfect (National Theatre Wales/Barbican tour), The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (National Theatre Wales tour, winner of the James Tait Black Award best play), Salt, Root and Roe (Donmar Warehouse - nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an affiliate theatre), Demos (Traverse Theatre) For Once (Pentabus Theatre/Hampstead theatre tour). He is currently lecturing in the screenwriting MA at Manchester University.

LISA JEN BROWN

Lisa is an Actor, Singer, writer and a songwriter and was selected part of the last �鶹Լ��’s Writersroom 10. Her short play Did to Me was recently broadcasted on The Verb �鶹Լ�� Radio 3. Other �鶹Լ�� Radio play credits include Summer is Long to Come for �鶹Լ�� Radio Wales and Allan o’r Byd / Out of This World for �鶹Լ�� Radio Cymru 2016.

Lisa wrote and performed TUNA for Dirty Protest Theatre as part of Plays in a Bag which showcased Welsh writers at the Almeida and Royal Court in London.

In 2013 Lisa won the Sherman Cymru script slam at the National Eisteddfod with her Welsh language play EIRA.
Lisa is the main songwriter and composer for her band 9Bach, recently signed to Peter Gabriel ’s RealWorld Records and their second album 'Tincian' won Best Album at The �鶹Լ�� Radio 2 folk Awards 2015. More recently 9Bach have released their third album ANIAN, that’s been critically acclaimed by the national, monthly and online press, also national �鶹Լ�� Radio 2 and Radio 4 Front Row. In April this year , Lisa created, wrote, performed, directed and produced the sell out performance of the multi arts show “ Llechi” at Pontio Arts Centre, Bangor.

Her short film Elen, commissioned by S4C/EBU will be released later this year. It was written and composed by Lisa, and produced by Ie Ie Productions.