About The Writers’ Collective…

Our programme for 2022/2023 ran from September 2022 and was completed in September 2023. Applications for the following programme are expected to open in Spring 2024.

This 12-month programme commissions & supports four emerging, early-career and underrepresented writers on a new idea - it employs 46 freelancers (including an assistant director & designer), provides six free online workshops, and concludes in a new writing festival!

Mrs C’s Collective is an artistic community that aims to nurture & support the growth of artists into autonomous creatives. From pitching, redrafting, and exploring structure and character, to self-producing, making your work accessible, and working with directors & designers; this 12-month programme takes four writers on a journey through their work. This concludes with a public sharing of their play as part of their very own festival The Big Share.

This programme is delivered online and in-person (London) to limit restrictions on creatives’ location.

This programme has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Arts Council England and their project grants, the Space theatre and all who have donated to our fundraisers over the past two years. Because of this, every creative involved is paid fairly for their time.

“The Writers’ Collective has opened the door to opportunities in theatre that were not available to me before. I have made working relationships with international artists, theatre-makers and programmers and have had direct offers at fringe festivals from Mrs C’s Collective platforms, scratch nights and networking events. I wouldn’t be the writer I am today without them.”

Emma Zadow, The Writers’ Collective 2020

What to expect from the programme

A tailored 12-month programme focusing on the development of your chosen script from idea to public performance, including:
- Hands-on experience within the theatre industry
- Development of your writing skills, artistic voice and confidence
- 1-2-1 dramaturgical feedback on two full drafts
- Monthly meet-ups and workshops or events (head to our workshop page to discover how you can join this year’s sessions!)
- Buddy & mentor system to encourage peer learning and collaboration
- Creative Speed Dating events to match writers with creative collaborators
- A professionally produced festival showcasing the four scripts in relaxed readings, collaborating with industry professionals (producers, directors, light and sound designers and actors) and the Space theatre
The Big Share: The Writers’ Collective Festival
- Exploration of the four scripts in full-length staged readings at the Space theatre (London)
- The festival takes place across one week, with every script receiving two sharings plus post-show events
- Each play receives specialist rehearsal support or a specialist to lead a post-show event
- Mrs C’s Collective works with the writers to cast the plays
- Each play receives 24 hours of rehearsal
- Director and writer pairings are chosen through a creative speed dating event, ensuring everyone gets a say on whom they would like to work with
- The festival takes place in person and is live-streamed

Meet the team

Somebody Jones (She/Her)

Programme Dramaturg

Somebody is an LA native playwright/dramaturg, currently living, working, and dreaming in London. Jones primarily works within the genres of horror, magical realism, verbatim, and recently, Black fantasy.

Shona Louise (She/Her)

Access Advisor

Shona works as an accessibility consultant, freelance writer and photographer within the theatre industry and is boldly passionate about making theatre more accessible for everyone.

Julian Felice (He/Him)

Writer Mentor

Julian is the first ever internationally published playwright from the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar and was a member of Mrs C’s first Writers’ Collective. His plays have been performed across London & he’s also worked closely with The New Works Playhouse and the Space. He has won Best Original Play at the Gibraltar Drama Festival 5 times & was awarded Cultural Ambassador at the 2019 Gibraltar Cultural Awards. He is also a recipient of the Governor of Gibraltar’s ‘For Excellence' Coin'.

Emma Zadow (She/Her)

Writer Mentor

Emma is an actor/writer. BBC New Creative, Soho Theatre Writers Lab Alumni, Mercury Theatre Playwright & Fresh Ink Screenwriter with Last Conker. Her plays are published (@renardpress). Shortlisted for Tony Craze Award & Vaults Five. JIGGING is available on BBCiPlayer (Winner of Paris Film Awards).

The Writers’ Collective 2022

Akshay Sharan (He/Him)

Akshay is an Actor and Writer.

“I was born in Darlington in the north of England and brought up in Dehradun in the north of India. I graduated from King’s College London in 2015 with a degree in English Literature. In my writing, I attempt to tread a fine line between comedy and drama. I often find myself returning to Chekhov’s body of work in pursuit of blurring that boundary between hilarity and tragedy.

The universal relatability of family drama is something I want to bring home for myself by tapping into different, often conflicting voices of both my own and the British South Asian community at large.”

James Farley (He/Him)

James is an Actor and Writer.

“I’ve been an openly gay actor since graduating drama school four years ago and have had to deal with my fair share of rejection for not passing as heterosexual or typically masculine, so now I’ve decided the only way to do the work I want to do is to write it.

Writing is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time but never had the confidence or tools to do it. But this play I’ve been trying to write for a few years is desperately itching to get out, which is why I applied, to push myself to get it out."

Nilgin Yusuf (She/Her)

Nilgin is a Journalist and Playwright.

“Writing’s one of the few things you get better at as you get older”.

I took solace from these words, spoken by author and lecturer, Julia Bell at a fiction-writing workshop in Waterstones. At the time, I was 52 and in the first year of a BA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London. I’d been an experienced journalist (ex-Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph & ELLE) and spent two further decades in Higher Education but had always wondered if I could make the leap into creative writing. ”

Lizzie Milton (She/They)

Lizzie is a Playwright and Storyteller.

“I am a playwright and storyteller who makes playful and affirming shows centering queer and neurodiverse experiences. I am particularly interested in how we can represent and celebrate joy on stage, not just trauma. I am heavily influenced by folklore and mythology in my work and I am interested in how aural traditions of storytelling can inform a contemporary theatrical experience. ”

The Writers’ Collective 2020

Emma Zadow

Emma is an actor and writer having trained at Rose Bruford College and Norton Centre of the Arts in Kentucky. She is a member of the Soho Writers Lab and is an Alumni Writer 2019-2020. Her full length plays include Fridge (King's Head Theatre) and Hamotzi (Theatre 503). Her third play, Black Hills, was shortlisted for the Tony Craze Award and ETPEP Award 2019. Her short plays have been performed at the Arcola, Southwark Playhouse, Old Red Lion, Pleasance, Lion & Unicorn, The Space, Norwich Arts Centre and Weisiger Theatre in Kentucky. As an actor, she won the Fringe Encore Award at the Soho Playhouse in New York. She will be appearing in her first short film 'The Cromer Special' with Silver Knight Entertainment in 2020. She continues to work as an actor internationally.

Find her on…

Twitter @EmmaZadow

Instagram @zadowemma

Nikhil Parmar

Nikhil Parmar is a 25-year-old writer and actor. Having been commissioned in 2019 by DNA Films to write the pilot for his original format The Cancellation of Karan Tharoor, most recently he has an Additional Material credit on C4’s Brad Boyz, partaking in the writers’ room and playing one of the leads. As an actor, he’s had roles in Trollied, Ricky Gervais’ After Life, and This Way Up, among others. Rep: Lucia Pallaris at United Agents (acting) and Jack Gilchrist at Casarotto (literary).

Find him on…

Twitter @nikparmar13

Instagram nickyparmar13

Ayse Evans

Ayse is a playwright and actor with her roots on the Isle Of Wight; in the last year she has developed her skills with the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Court. Ayse's work aims to make you laugh as much as cry, and hopefully have you talking the whole way home.

Darrel Draper

Darrel is a socio-political writer, director and actor. His previous work has appeared on such stages as the Stratford Circus Theatre, Pleasance Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Old Red Lion, Hope Theatre and the Bread And Roses. Saw It Here First Productions will be staging an extract from one of his latest plays at the Theatro Technis on March the 8th 2020 in aid of the Moira Fund.

Find him on…

Twitter @ThemeanDoubleD

Instagram @darreldraper

Julian Felice

Julian Felice is the first ever internationally published playwright from the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. He has had four plays published in the USA and three professionally performed in London. He has won Best Original Play at the Gibraltar Drama Festival on five occasions and recently won the award for Cultural Ambassador at the Gibraltar Cultural Awards.

Find him on…

Twitter @JulianFelice

Eddie Martin Coleman

Eddie has been writing comic dramas for several years. Many have been produced in London and for amateur drama festivals in Essex.

In 2015 Idiot Spaz was a winner of the British Theatre Challenge.

In 2018 his one-woman show, Fan Girl, was produced at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Find him on…

Twitter @DavidFinn.

Laura Shoebottom

Laura is a writer and producer based in Sutton. Her short plays have been produced at Theatre 503, The Old Red Lion and The Pleasance and her full length play ‘Blue Tights, Red Knickers and an ’S’ on Her Vest’ has just finished a run at Camden Fringe. Laura is currently writing a monologue for 'Feel More' with Proforca Theatre which will be staged in February 2020 at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre.

Jade Jones

Jade is a playwright and screenwriter who has a passion for finding comedy in everyday life. Honing the craft at university, Jade’s third and most recent play was commissioned after a run at 3Minute Theatre for The Manchester Fringe Festival which went on to win her the Best Drama award 2018. Currently writing and composing music for a new play, Jade has a great passion for film and television, working with production companies and writing shorts to be made by independent film makers, one which will be screened at the Northern Film Festival this summer.

Find her at…

Instagram @jadejoneswrites

Blog https://jadejonessdiary.wordpress.com/

Katie Paterson

Katie Paterson is a writer-performer who trained at Mountview, graduating with an MA in Performance (Acting) in 2018. Her solo show about the queerness of childhood, Minor Disruptions, premiered at Maiden Speech in 2018, and went on to the Drayton Arms Theatre, Theatre503 (preview) and the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019. Her second show Game Face, a collaboration with Lexi Clare and Lucy Park, previewed in London at the Tristan Bates Theatre and is playing at Q Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand this February. She was Assistant Producer for Damsel Productions' The Amber Trap (Theatre503) and regularly performs as a poet and stand up.

Farah Najib

Farah Najib is a writer and performer. Recently, she’s been part of the Royal Court Writer’s Group and is currently on Soho Writer’s Lab. She’s just about to begin working on her first commission, which will look at the impacts of A.I. on modern society. She also writes theatre reviews, articles and opinion pieces.