The Writers
Andi Courtland is a writer of both fiction and drama whose short story DIFFERENTIAL DIAGONSIS was a winner of the Cheshire Literature Prize in 2024 and whose full-length play WATCHING THE SKY GO DARK was recently given a table-read by Show Up Productions. Other work includes the comedy two-hander A FRANK TALK ABOUT AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT and the short story TENURED, read on BBC Radio Sheffield in 2021.
Trish Bertram lives in Teddington and started seriously writing about 4 years ago after joining a writers’ class in Kingston. She has a background in theatre stage management and broadcast television, but has always wanted to write. Theatre was always her first love so playwriting is her particular interest, and having now reached a point in her life where she can finally make time to do it.
Emma Dawson is a playwright and novelist and currently has DYCP funding from the Arts Council. Her play, EDIE, was performed at Theatre503, alongside being longlisted for Theatre503 International Playwriting Prize, longlisted for development with Traverse Theatre, shortlisted for development with Middle Child Theatre, and shortlisted for Through the Mill Playwriting Prize. For her prose work, she is represented by Suzannah Ball at WME and her debut novel, MARINE, was longlisted for the 2025 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize.
Nilgún Yusuf is an alumna of Soho Theatre Writers Lab, was longlisted for the Tony Craze Award in 2025 and recently received a Peggy Ramsey Award for her current work in progress. Her debut play NINE MOONS was supported by Mrs C’s Collective and performed at four London venues. Her plays have also been performed at the Space, Bridge House Theatre, Old Red Lion, Lion & Unicorn, Bold Theatre, Barons Court Theatre, Drayton Arms and INK Festival. She is currently working on an MA in Writing for Screen and Stage at Birkbeck and regularly reviews for London Pub Theatres and The Reviews Hub.
Annie Power is a London-based writer and producer working across theatre and film. A graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme, her work has been staged at venues including Soho Theatre, The Old Red Lion and Pleasance Theatre. Her films have screened at festivals such as the BFI London Film Festival, and she won Best Screenwriter at the Underwire Film Festival in 2014. In 2024, she founded the theatre and film company Open Page Productions.
The Cast
Patrick Ashe is an actor and magician. Trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland graduating in 2025. Theatre credits include The Maladies (Almeida Young Company), Rhino(s) (Lyric Hammersmith) and The Merry Wives Of Windsor (Shakespeare’s Globe) Patrick also works as a magician and magic designer.
Alice Berry is a Midlands-born actor, working across screen, stage, and immersive theatre. Her credits include Iris in Rotten (UK Tour), Chelsea in Goodbye ‘89 (Vaults), Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (Corbett Theatre), and Miss Scarlett in Best Served Cold (Curve Theatre). Alice can also be seen in commercials for Costa Coffee, FlixBus, and starred in Amazon’s Red Nose Day campaign with Guz Kahn.
Cranks has been an actor for 18 years She has just finished performing in Macbeth at Shakespeare Playhouse North but is more often found on the London fringe. Nominated for two OffWestEnd Awards – Best Performance in a Play (2023) and Best Solo Performance (2022). Awarded a Norman Beaton Fellowship by the BBC in 2021 her latest radio drama Meanwhile is on BBC Sounds.
Maiya Louise Thapar trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Credits include Harriet Smith in Emma Theatre Royal Bath and on tour and Claire in The Spy Princess at London’s Playground Theatre. She has just finished playing Constance Neville in New Forest Open Air Theatre’s production of She Stoops to Conquer.
