Theatre Centre, the UK’s foremost producer and champion of new writing for young audiences, has launched a Writer’s Fellowship to enable four pioneering writers to create radical, challenging and provocative work for young audiences. For 66 years, Theatre Centre has worked with exceptional writers at all stages of their career, supporting them through a raft of opportunities with the objective of making great plays for children and young people.
Now, their Writer’s Fellowship seeks to draw attention to that work, attract new blood into the sector and shout loud and proud that this is the most relevant, important and impactful work a theatre artist can do.
The four inaugural Fellows announced are award-winning playwright and actor Charlotte Josephine (Bitch Boxer, Blush, Pops); writer and director Leo J Skilbeck, also Artistic Director of Milk Presents (BULLISH, JOAN, Big Ben); multi-awarding Writer’s Guild Award nominated writer, winner of the Character 7 Prize and the Adrian Pagan Award 2018 Nessah Muthy (Small Wonders); and winner of the 2018 Off-West End Adopt A Playwright Award Ryan Calais Cameron (Rhapsody, Queens of Sheba). The Fellowship helps to minimise risks for the writers, supporting them to create a piece that will work brilliantly in schools as a dynamic and energising encounter with real depth. Through these collaborations, Theatre Centre plans to work with writers to push the boundaries of Theatre in Schools.
This field of work is particular in its requirements: addressing the needs of schools where theatre encounters take place; being mindful of diversity in its broadest sense; ensuring that the play can stand up and stand tall within the performance environment of the school; as well as being a vital piece of work for venue programming. This work is not the easy option. This work is not the place to be lazy. This work is where an artist’s mettle is tested.
Artistic Director, Natalie Wilson comments, The Theatre Centre Writer Fellowship has been driven by our desire to create more radical and inquisitive work for Theatre in Schools, to offer young audiences in schools the best theatre experience possible. We want to say a deep thank you to all the companies that nominated writers and how fantastic it was to meet so many talented and exciting artists through the selection process. Everyone we met has something to offer. The four writers who will join us as part of the Writer’s Fellowship exemplify the energy and vitality that this artform requires. They are hugely gifted, all different and all hungry to learn.
In addition to this collaboration with these four playwrights, Theatre Centre has also welcomed as patrons Roy Williams OBE, arguably one of the country's leading dramatists, and acclaimed actress Naomi Ackie who will be seen in Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker. Both Williams and Ackie started their careers at Theatre Centre in very different eras yet both epitomise the company values - talent, tenacity, integrity and generosity.
Roy Williams OBE comments, I first worked at Theatre Centre as an actor, but writing was always my true passion. I just did not know how to start. The company ran a writer’s group in the evening, and I was invited to join. Also, I learned a lot about playwriting from the writers who wrote plays with the company such as Noel Greig, Lin Coghlan and Philip Osment, I could not ask for better mentors. Theatre Centre was the first place that showed me I could be a writer and gave me the belief that I had something to say as well as write about. Today, the plays I see by Theatre Centre are fantastic, by some great writers. If I were watching them in a school, I would be so excited about what theatre can say to me. Theatre Centre remains important to me as a writer as I have the chance to speak with young people through theatre and I want to see Theatre Centre give many more writers the chance to stretch their craft and experience the amazing energy of young audiences in school, the same as it gave me.
Notes to Editors Theatre Centre
Theatre Centre brings world-class theatre straight into the heart of schools. Their productions present big ideas and difficult questions that can help young audiences make sense of a complex and changing world. They use the power of stories, writing and performance to support students and teachers in their learning across a range of subjects to build confidence and aspirations. Their vision is that children and young people are empowered in their activism and leadership through theatre, using their voices and ideas to make change in themselves and the world around them.
Diversity and inclusion are core to their practice so that they can best reflect and relate to the experience of children and young people today. They want to make work with innovative and inquisitive artists and have a range of opportunities for artistic development including commissions, their Writer Fellowships and Splash residencies. They were founded in 1953 by Brian Way and Margaret Faulkes who pioneered touring theatre productions to schools and new writing for young audiences. As they move towards their 70th birthday, they continue to lead the Theatre in Schools movement as an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation and wave the flag for more writers and artists to make work for young audiences in the UK and beyond.
For more information follow them on Twitter @TCLive or search #TCFellowship. www.theatre- centre.co.uk.
