The Programme

Book People by Jessica Moss

Walking On Water by Kara May

INTERVAL

The Hide by Heather Hampson

Stop Drinking Man by Tasmin Jahan

A Pregnant Pause by Annie Power

Directed by Barry Edwards

The Writers

Heather Hampson is a writer who lives in East London. She has previously had work performed at Optik Theatre and other scratch nights around the city, and is currently working on a novel. Sometimes she can be found trekking though a jungle, or clambering up snow covered mountains, looking for wildlife.

Tasmin Jahan is a British Asian playwright. She is a prolific writer of full length and short plays. To date, she has written 410 plays. In 2022, she wrote 365 short plays (one for each day of the year!). She has had many readings/performances of her work at home and overseas, mainly in the USA. 

Kara May is a playwright and award- winning children’s author. Her work includes: Castles in the Air (Polka Theatre), Goldilocks and the Crocodile (Unicorn Theatre), The Dream Snatcher (book and lyrics) adaptation of  her book of the same name, commissioned and first performed at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College, London, plays for BBC radio.  Fiction includes Yeti Boy and numerous books for younger readers. She lives in London and has a grown-up daughter.

Jessica Moss writes, performs, and produces. Some of her plays include Funnie (2022 winner of the Leah Ryan’s FEWW Prize, O’Neill finalist), A Girl Lives Alone (SafeWord New Play Contest winner), Cam Baby (Toronto Fringe New Play Winner, Weissberger finalist), Polly Polly (Ed Mirvish Award for Entrepreneurship), Next to Him, We’ll Make it Together, and more. As an actor, she has appeared at Young People’s Theatre, Tarragon,  Sudbury Theatre Centre, Luminato, SummerWorks, and more. Training: Juilliard. 

Annie Power has written plays, screenplays and authored short fiction, which has appeared in magazines. She’s had multiple short plays staged at venues such as The Soho Theatre and The Old Red Lion, has written several short films which have been screened at various film festivals and in 2014 she won the Best Screenwriter award at Underwire film festival.

The Cast

Charlotte Baker most recently completed filming on Marvel’s Secret Invasion, airing on Disney this June. Other TV + film credits include Vera (ITV 2023), Cobra (Sky One), This is Christmas (Sky Cinema) and Fisherman’s Friends (2019).  In 2017 Charlotte appeared in Optik Theatre’s production of In the Fog and Rest Cure for the WW1 Centenary.

Joe Beecroft has been professionally acting for just over 4 years performing recently in new writing projects at The Bread and Roses in Clapham. He is very pleased to have the opportunity to be part of Optik Theatre’s Script Room company for this production and perform in these fantastic pieces of new writing

Sam Cartwright graduated from the Institute for Contemporary Theatre 2020 and has since toured with Jack Whitehall in his Netflix special Stood Up and was the lead in the Brighton Festival production Two Pairs of Eyes. Other credits include Ajax in Troilus and Cressida directed by The Globe’s Conor Baum, Miles in This May Hurt a Bit directed by Max Stafford-Clark and appearances in music videos for Jess Glynne and Will Young.

Megan Kennedy trained at Drama Centre London and Rose Bruford College, graduating in 2019. In recent years, she has performed at The Camden Fringe and Riverside Studios. This is her third time working with Optik Theatre on ‘The Script Room’ and she is very excited to be back! 

Susannah Scott is an actor and co-artistic director of Bang Average Theatre, touring recently to Prague, Bergen and Gothenburg Fringe, as well as the Edinburgh Fringe and the Soho Theatre. Film credits include Birdy (winner Best Actress Bristol International Film Festival 2022) and Varken, Aesthetica Short Film Festival. Susannah has just finished a UK tour of Dirty Corset, appearing at Hull Truck Theatre, Shakespeare North Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse and York Theatre Royal.

Tom Thornton Tom graduated from Rose Bruford in 2020 performing inAlbatrossby Isley Lynn in his final production. He has had leading roles in Macbeth and The Odyssey. Film credits include the short film Hidden. Tom is also a writer and his work Shifting Sands was exhibited at the digital arts festival The Living Record to four-star reviews.