Claire Bennett is a full-time, professional scriptwriter. She has written plays and series for R4 and is currently a core writer on the BBC1 drama 'Doctors' for which her script, 'Aftermath', was one half of a two-parter that won the Best Episode category at the British Soap Awards 2007. Other 'Doctors' scripts by Claire have been nominated for Royal Television Society Awards. She has worked for Carlton Television in addition to local, independent theatre. In 2003 she won the commission from Hotbed Media to write their feature film 'The Man Who Wouldn’t Paint Hitler.'

David Calcutt is a novelist, playwright and poet. He has written many original plays and adaptations for radio, theatre and community theatre, and several of his plays are published for use in schools.  His first novel, Crowboy, is soon to be published by Oxford University Press, and he has just completed his second, The Goat Skin Dream, which is to be published in 2008.  He is currently running a major community poetry project in Lichfield call Stone Voices, funded by Arts Council  England.

Vivienne Cottrell graduated from Loughborough University and The Drama Studio Ealing before becoming a freelance director and theatre manager for Man in the Moon Theatre, Chelsea. Whilst there she became a script reader for Soho Theatre and the Royal Court as well as several TV companies and playwriting competitions. She qualified as a teacher and began to combine careers as both teacher and script reader. She continues to do so working with performing arts students at South Birmingham College.

Caroline David is the Literary Associate (Northampton) for the Theatre Writing Partnership and is based at the Royal and Derngate Theatre.  She also works as a sessional Lecturer in Film at the University of the Creative Arts and is a freelance writer.  Caroline has over four years experience working as a Script Reader for the Hampstead Theatre, the Soho Theatre, the London Screenwriters Workshop, the National Film and TV School, Alibi Films, and British Screen amongst others.  She currently has a stage play under commission with the Theatre Royal Stratford East and a screenplay with New Horizon films.  She has an MA (with Distinction) in Arts Criticism from City University and graduated from the National Film adn TV School in Screenwriting in 2001.

Lynn Davies trained as an actor at LAMDA before embarking on a scriptwriting career. He has worked widely in TV, radio, theatre and film and won a Writers' Guild Award for his work on BBC's 'Between the Lines'. Lynn also teaches screenwriting, as well as running his own theatre and media production company, Kayelle Productions Ltd.

Jennifer Farmer is a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee and moved to London in 1998.  Her first play, Breathing, was developed during her Soho Writers' Attachment in 2001 and produced at Theatre 503 in 2003.  Compact Failure, Jennifer's play for Clean Break, received rave reviews when it premiered in 2004.  Her most recent play, Bulletproof Soul, premiered at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in March 2007.  Jennifer has written plays for the Bush Theatre, Paines Plough, the National Youth Theatre and BBC Radio 3 and 4.  Her current commissions include plays for the Tricycle Theatre, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Quicksilver Theatre and BBC Radio 3.

Charlotte Goodwin is a graduate of Dartington College of Arts and Birmingham University where she now teaches on the BA in Creative Writing. She was a writer/deviser with Washouse Dance Theatre and her work has been boradcast on Radio 4 and published by Hodder and Stoughton.

Fraser Grace has more than ten years experience as both a reader and a writer of plays.  His most recent play, Breakfast with Mugabe, was joint winner of the Arts Council's John Whiting Award in 2006, and was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and London, later transferring to the West End, and then to Radio 3, where it scooped a Sony Radio Academy Silver Award.  He is currently director of the Writing Drama course at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and is under commission at the National Theatre.  His plays are published by Oberon Books.

Mick Greenway is a playwright, director and actor. He has written for ITC companies and Carlton Television Workshop. He has devised and directed plays with professional companies and at drama colleges and has also written and directed community plays. His work has been performed on BBC Radio 4 and has been showcased by TAPS. As an actor he has worked on the stage, in television and on radio.

Dale Heinen is Senior Reader and a dramaturg for Soho Theatre, London.  She has served as a panellist for the Westminster Prize for Short Plays and a judge at the Oxford University New Play Festival, and was one of the primary readers for the 2007 Verity BArgate Award.  Dale is also a professional director of new writing who has directed premieres in Chicago, New York (off-Broadway), and London.  She is a past recipient of the Arches Award for directors and was Artistic Director of Footsteps Theatre in Chicago before moving to London.  She has taught playwriting workshops at Soho Theatre and interpretation of text workshops for post-graduate drama programmes in London and Brazil.

Theresa Heskins is Artistic Director of the New Vic Theatre.  Ast Artistic Director of Pentabus Theatre, her work included White Open Spaces, Silent Engine and Precious Bane.  As Artistic Director of Jade Theatre her work included hit comedy Grace. She has worked with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Soho Theatre, the National Theatre, the Royal Court, BBC Radio and the English Shakespeare Company.

Natalie Ibu is an emerging theatre director.  Since gaining a First Class Honours degree in Theatre in 2004, she has been awarded bursaries from the Federation of Scottish Theatr, Scottish Arts Council and Arts Council East Midlands.  She has worked across the UK with Lyceum Youth Theatre, Edinburgh; The Citizen's Theatre, Glasgow; Lung Ha's Theatre Company, East Midlands; Fresh Perspectives, Mansfield and New Perspectives, Nottinghamshire.  Prior to becoming a professional theatre director, Natalie worked at the Traverse Theatre under Artistic Director Philip Howard.

Paul Johnson is currently Drama Course leader at the University of Wolverhampton, having previously worked as an applied theatre researcher, a director and a community arts worker. He has also worked as a reader for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and has written a PhD on the links between science and performance.

Nicholas McInerny has fifteen years experience of writing for stage, radio, television and film. Recent projects include an episode of Number 10 for Radio 4 (with Anthony Sher), a treatment for an original TV show for Showrunner, and regular episodes of The Bill.

Philip Monks is a Birmingham-based playwright and poet. He specialises in plays for young people and has had several recent plays commissioned by MAC (Midlands Arts Centre) as well as writing extensively for the TV Workshop. He has worked for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre on school-based playwright development schemes, and has many years experience running creative writing projects both for young people and adults.  He is a member of NAWE (National Association of Writers in Education).

Arzhang Pezhman developed Bolt-Hole (produced Spring 2006) at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre as part of the Writers' Attachment Scheme.  He has also written a play for the Young REP, Tics, which was produced and performed early in 2005 at the Old Rep Theatre.  Having worked as a writing tutor at Wolverhampton University, London Metropolitan University, Graeae Theatre Company, the Royal Court Theatre, Soho Theatre and the REP, Arzhang has also had his work produced by the Royal Court Theatre - Local (2000) and Come Around (2003).  In 2003 he was commissioned to write a full-length play Mother's Day, which was performed by pupils at Wolverhampton Grammar School.  Arzhang has completed a feature length Kirikiomi, funded by Screen West Midlands and developed by Script.  He was also Writer-in-Residence at the Soho Theatre in 2006.

Sarah Punshon is a freelance TV and theatre director based in York. She script reads and develops new writing for a range of organisations, including the BBC, North West Playwrights, and the West Yorkshire Playhouse.  Recent TV directing includes Doctors, Eastenders and Emmerdale; recent theatre directing includes work for the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Theatre-by-the-Lake, and the New Vic, Stoke-on-Trent.

Nimer Rashed is a writer and script reader for theatre, television, and film.  In 2006, he won the Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award for his script The Great McGinty at the International Emmy Awards in New York, and his play Itchycoo Park was a winner of Soho Theatre's Westminster Prize.  In 2007, he was a winner of the decibel Penguin Prize.  Nimer's script reading clients include Warner Bros Pictures, Working Title Films, Scott Free Productions and Soho Theatre.

Peter Roberts is an RSC award-winning playwright with credits for stage, television and radio. Plays include Education, Education and Viking Tales for Derby Playhouse, and Flying for Arthur for the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff. He has had several short stories and thirteen radio dramas broadcast on Radio 4, and has worked as a playwriting mentor for the BBC and Script. Recent productions include Heart and Stone, specially commissioned by New Theatre Works, The Supreme Sunbeam, commissioned by Wolverhampton Central Youth Theatre and performed at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton in September 2007, and 3 Minutes 2 Change Yr Life 4ever, which was premiered at Chesterfield's Pomegranate Theatre in March 2007.

Shabnam Shabazi is a director, producer and artist. She is currently working as a freelance Programme Producer for the South Asian Theatre Touring Consortium. She has previously worked as Associate Producer at the Contact Theatre, Manchester; Associate Director to Max Stafford-Clark  on Caryll Churchill's production of Blue Heart and April de Angelis' Positive Hour and Assistant Director of Paines Plough.

Clare Smout is a professional freelance director based in Birmingham, with a strong involvement with local new writing. She is also Artistic Director of Packhorse Productions, a company formed to produce new writing from and for the Midlands. Her other theatrical interests include Renaissance and Restoration drama, and she recently completed an MA in Shakespeare and Theatre.  She has just directed Brendan Murray's The Falling Sky for OTTC, a new play on the future of the rural way of life, for which she was researcher, dramaturg and director.  Clare's past work includes productions for the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Harrogate Theatre, Eastern Angles, Blunderbus and Eye Theatre, as well as much guest directing for various drama schools and for Birmingham University.

Jenny Stephens is a theatre director, radio producer and writing who lives and works in the West Midlands. She worked for the BBC for two years, was Artistic Director of The Worcester Swan Theatre for eight years and her productions have toured nationally and internationally.

Tracy Symonds is a full time lecturer in Film Studies and Scriptwriting, working in the field for the past 12 years. She delivers the prestigious phScreenplay course in 'Introduction to Screenwriting' as well as devising and delivering FE and HE modules in the subject. Tracy is a screenwriting mentor and sometime producer with her first film 'Panic' winning the Century 21 Short Film Award.

Lance Woodman is a professional playwright. He has written three main stage plays for the Worcester Swan Theatre. While at Worcester he was awarded a Pearson Playwriting Bursary. He is a director of the artsworcs production company and artworcs produced his play Upside Down and Back to Front in 2005.  His short play Kind of Dark was performed at Miniaturists 8 at The Arcola Theatre in 2007.  He has had two plays braodcast on BBC Radio 4.  He is currently writing a play for Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

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