Designed specifically for writers who are used to conceiving work for the stage, this workshop illuminates the unique challenges and exciting possibilities of writing for cinema and will give participants the confidence to begin writing for the screen. Film offers a wealth of new creative possibilities, and this workshop explores how to embrace the new technical tools at your disposal whilst keeping true to your own writing voice.

Meet the participants!

Mercedes White

Mercedes has written for theatre on multiple occasions, has a deep desire to write for screen, and believes that creating space for storytelling is the secret to finding the human connection that threads us all together.

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Katie Walker-Cook
Katie is a Dorset-based writer-performer whose work has been performed at the Minack Theatre and on BBC Radio 4.
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Gabrielle Finnegan

Gabrielle is an actor, writer and director who is passionate about voicing female-led and working-class stories.

Website

Gill Simmons
Gill is a working-class theatre maker and the Artistic Director of Brave Bold Drama, an award-winning theatre and community arts company based in the south west.

Website

Nicola Masters
Nicola has previously worked with the Soho Theatre and is the writer of the award-winning musical The Miserables. She is also the author of two novels, Happy Happy Happy and Ready For It.

Website

Jessica Millson
Jessie is a playwright, poet, and performer based in Bristol and London. Their recent work includes Pressure Cooker (The White Bear, Kennington and The Space One on the Mile, Edinburgh) and Options (Tobacco Factory Theatres). They are currently studying for an MA in Drama Writing at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and really enjoy sapphic, gritty political theatre as well as writing a lot of poetical farce.

Instagram: @jessiemillson

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Website

Lucy Barnfather
Lucy is a Bristol-based actor and writer currently working on ‘Rising Waters’ a community theatre project to be performed in July 2024.

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Marie Belsten
Marie is an award-winning writer who specialises in creating short pieces for theatre, and has recently forayed into writing comedy-drama intended for the screen.

An example of Marie’s short play produced by Haywire Theatre can be found here.

Roxana Vilk
Roxana is a British-Iranian actor, writer and director based in Bristol, whose work often explores themes of human rights, cultural identity and migration.

Website

Instagram

Hannah Ali Khan

Hannah is a playwright with a keen interest in writing for the screen, whose work mainly focuses on young female British Asian stories. Her current project is a one-woman play about living with cancer (Cancer B*tch!) which was recently performed as part of A Pinch Of Vault festival in London.

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Caroline Williams
Caroline is an award-winning director and maker working in multidisciplinary performance.

Website

Eleanor Yates
Eleanor is a Bristol-based actor and writer and also the co-founder of the gig-theatre company Neon Candle. 

Website
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Jon-Luke Goodman
Jon-Luke is a Bristol-based writer-director who champions the telling of stories of the working class, family dynamics and hope.

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Rebecca Brewer
Rebecca is an actor, writer and theatre maker originally from Derbyshire, now based in the South West.

Website 

Lori Hilson
Lori has written for the stage and has a one-act play, Appearances, on at the Cygnet Theatre Exeter at the end of April 2024 and at Barnstaple’s Fringe TheatreFest at the end of June this year. 

Tickets

John Yates
John has had stage pieces performed at Edinburgh and other festivals and is currently developing a full-length political play and a trilogy set in Neolithic Wiltshire.

John’s stage play Circle, will be adapted by Shona Charlton.

Evelyn Bonella

Evelyn is an actor and writer who has performed in a range of theatre and film. Her debut play The Wrong Color Blue is being developed into a short to feature along with her other film projects.

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Patrick Wilson
Patrick is a Bristol-based theatre and comedy director, facilitator, and writer currently studying for a Masters in Drama Directing at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

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Jane Harvey
Jane is a Cornish writer. Having gained a master’s degree with distinction in Comedy Writing in 2023, Jane has had material aired on BBC Radio 4’s DM’s Are Open and is a writer for the Radio 4 sketch show Wosson Cornwall, which was shortlisted for a British Comedy Guide award.

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Katharine Jee
Katharine is an actor and writer from Dorset with a love for writing comedy and creating roles for women over 40.

Website

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Instagram

Claire Doherty
Claire is a writer, producer and creative director known for ground-breaking cross-art form projects in the public realm. Most recently she was Creative Director and Executive Producer of the Rose d’Or nominated GALWAD for National Theatre Wales and Sky Arts.

Website

Emily Jenkins

Emily is a multi-award winning playwright, director and Shakespeare and acting coach at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. 

Website

Sarah Connors

Sarah is a Cornwall-based playwright, where she has had a recent pilot tour of her PlayTRE, featuring Mary Woodvine and directed by Simon Harvey.

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Website

Elinor Lower

Elinor is a Bristol-based writer and director, their work celebrates and wrestles with tenderness, rules, joy, risk and teamwork. 

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Rachael Fagan

Rachael is a dynamic and powerful actor who is writing her first screenplay. She was recently involved in the Bristol to Botany Bay project with Show of Strength Theatre Company.

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Sarah Fielding

Sarah is a director, dramaturg and writer from Bristol working across theatre and film. 

Website

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Jane Spurr

Jane is a writer and multi platform Cornish artist-performer, her theatre making is often visual and immersive, blending digital art, and design to create vivid theatrical worlds and unique stories.

Their latest project is The Writers Block Devonport Writers Room Project – Tales from Devonport.

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Roisin McCay-Hines

Roisin is a Cornish-Irish director and writer based in Bristol, inspired by stories that examine the relationship between people and place.

Website

Angie Lars
Angie is an emerging writer, with a head full of quirky characters, in the process of finding ways to do them justice and give them life on the screen. 
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