Simon Stephens is a British-Irish playwright and Professor of Scriptwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University. Having taught on the Young Writers' Programme at the Royal Court Theatre for many years, he is now an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith. He is the inaugural Associate Playwright of Steep Theatre Company, Chicago, where four of his plays, Harper Regan,Motortown, Wastwater, and Birdland had their U.S. premieres. His writing is widely performed throughout Europe and, along with Dennis Kelly and Martin Crimp, he is one of the most performed English-language writers in Germany.
Niamh Cusack is an Irish actress. Born to a family with deep roots in the performing arts, she has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre, and many others. Her most notable television role was as Dr. Kate Rowan in the UK series Heartbeat (1992–1995). Other TV and film credits include Always and Everyone (1999–2002), The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends (1992–1995), The Closer You Get (2000), Agatha Christie's Marple, Midsomer Murders (2008), A Touch of Frost (2010), In Love with Alma Cogan (2011), Testament of Youth (2014), Departure (2015), ChickLit, The Ghoul (2016), The Virtues (2019), Death in Paradise (2021), The Tower (2023). She has been nominated at IFTA for her performance in Too Good to be True (2004).
Maxine Peake is an English actress and narrator. She is known for her roles as Twinkle in dinnerladies, a sitcom on BBC One (1998–2000), as Veronica Ball in Shameless, the comedy drama from Channel 4 (2004–2007), Martha Costello in the BBC One legal drama Silk (2011–2014), and Grace Middleton in the BBC One drama series The Village (2013–2014). In 2017, she starred in the Black Mirror episode "Metalhead". She has also played the title role in Hamlet, as well as the notorious serial killer Myra Hindley in See No Evil: The Moors Murders, the critically acclaimed 2006 dramatisation by ITV of the Moors murders.
Emma Cunniffe is an English film, stage and television actress.
William Gaminara is a Rhodesian-born British actor, screenwriter and playwright, probably best known for playing pathologist Professor Leo Dalton on the television series Silent Witness, from 2002 to 2013. His plays include According to Hoyle, The Three Lions and The Nightingales.
Dennis Kelly is a British writer and producer. He has worked for theatre, television and film.
James Phillips is a British playwright, director and photographer.
The Orange Tree Theatre is a 180-seat theatre at 1 Clarence Street, Richmond in south-west London, which was built specifically as a theatre in the round. It is housed within a disused 1867 primary school, built in Victorian Gothic style.
David Greig is a Scottish playwright and theatre director. His work has been performed at many of the major theatres in Britain, including the Traverse Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, Royal National Theatre, Royal Lyceum Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and been produced around the world.
Tanika Gupta is a British playwright. Apart from her work for the theatre, she has also written scripts for television, film and radio plays.
David Ian Rabey FLSW is an Emeritus Professor of Theatre and Theatre Practice at Aberystwyth University. He worked there for 35 years, until he retired from teaching at the end of August 2020.
The Skriker is a 1994 play by Caryl Churchill that tells the story of an ancient fairy who, during the course of the play, transforms into a plethora of objects and people as it pursues Lily and Josie, two teenage mothers whom it befriends, manipulates, seduces and entraps. Whilst speaking English in its human incarnations, the Skriker’s own language consists of broken and fragmented word play. Blending naturalism, horror and magical realism, it is a story of love, loss and revenge. As with Churchill's A Mouthful of Birds (1986), the play explores the themes of post-natal psychosis and possession.
The Apathists were a collective of British playwrights who staged plays and happenings in London between March 2006 and March 2007. The events generated a cult following on the London theatre scene. The collective had a festival of their work at the Union Theatre produced by David Luff and were involved in the 2006 Latitude Festival, but their work mainly centred on monthly nights at Theatre503, formerly the Latchmere Theatre.
Patrick O'Kane is an Irish actor who was born in 1965 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has been part of the companies of the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. He has appeared in London's West End and at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In addition to his extensive stage work, O'Kane has appeared in movies and on television in many parts.
Alistair McDowall is a British playwright who grew up in Great Broughton in North Yorkshire. His play Brilliant Adventures was awarded a Bruntwood Prize in 2011.
Rafts and Dreams is a play by English playwright Robert Holman that was first performed in 1990, and published in 1991.
Clare Lizzimore is a British theatre director and writer. Her production of Bull by Mike Bartlett, won 'Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre' at the 2015 Olivier Awards. Lizzimore has been resident director at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, and staff director at the Royal National Theatre.
The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is a British competition for playwriting, the largest of its kind in Europe—in 2019 it received 2561 entries. Since its inception in 2005, more than 15,000 scripts have been entered, £304,000 has been awarded to 34 prize-winning writers, and 24 winning productions have been staged in 38 UK-wide venues. In 2015 the prize celebrated its 10th anniversary and is now recognised as a launch-pad for some of the country's most respected and produced playwrights. The Prize is awarded to scripts that are original and unperformed. The award is a joint venture between the property company Bruntwood and the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester the Prize is an opportunity for writers of any background and experience to enter unperformed plays to be judged by a panel of industry experts for a chance to win part of a prize fund totalling £40,000.
John Gordon is an English actor. He is best known for roles such as Sean in Elaine Constantine's Northern Soul, Ronnie Biggs in the BBC One TV-series The Great Train Robbery and Peter Foley in The Crimson Field. On the stage, he gained acclaim for his role as "man" in Philip Ridley's Tender Napalm and Giovanni in Cheek by Jowl's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.
Sean Rigby is a stage and television actor from Preston, Lancashire, England. He is best known for playing Jim Strange in Endeavour.
