The Collective 1: The Writers.
Anshula Bain
Bio:
Anshula Bain is an actor based in London. She loves all things Real Housewives, Independent cinema and British sitcom comedies. She is a first time writer.
Play:
Anshula is working on a play called ‘Suburbizz.’ which follows the story of Ayesha - a 15 year old brown girl, who will do anything to fit in. Expect Bieber Hysteria, Underage Booze and Bluetoothed 2010 Bangers. It's a story with friendship at its heart, and teenage dreams so big that feel impossible to come true.
Lauren Sudworth
Bio:
Lauren Sudworth is a writer and researcher for the hit US podcast American Scandal, and is currently studying an MA in Scriptwriting at the University of East Anglia. Her first short play, Watershed, was staged at the 2026 Norwich Lighthouse Festival and will run for five days at the Gene Frankel Theatre in New York this summer, while her short horror play Mother’s Milk will be staged at the Sewell Barn Theatre this Halloween. Sex, Then Death is her first full-length play.
Giannini Hemmings
Bio:
Giannini Hemmings, is writer originally from London now based in Essex. Giannini writes across all mediums and was shortlisted in Sid Gentle's 2021 Thousand Stories competition along with placing in the top 12% of BBC Writers Drama Room in 2023. Most recently he was part of the Mercury Theatre Playwright Development Scheme 24/25 in association with Paines Plough. Giannini’s writing heavily explores identity, always in search of stories that hold value and meaning to community and the wider world.
Play:
1680. When the Tyler family, former enslaved black servants are granted their freedom, they decide to leave London and relocate to the village of Tiptree in the Essex countryside, but their arrival coincides with a barren spell for the village. The land falls foul to a harrowing famine for two consecutive years, its inhabitants are forced to take drastic action to preserve the survival of the village and its people.
Craig Henry
Bio:
Craig Henry is a London-based playwright and director, and Artistic Director of Caromoon Productions. An alumnus of the Soho Writers’ Lab, he’s passionate about championing and developing new talent — his work has been performed at the Hope Theatre, Etcetera Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith, New Diorama, Brockley Jack and Old Red Lion. Previous work includes the Arts Council Funded Her Country, which had a sold-out run at the Hope Theatre, and Assessment Centre, which enjoyed a sold-out run at the Etcetera Theatre in 2023, was nominated for an OFFfest award, and was named among Rated Reviewed’s ‘Top 10 Shows of 2023.’
Play:
The Cared For is a tragicomedy about the people who slip through the cracks of care — and the exhausted, overstretched people trying to catch them. At its heart are Nick, seeking a diagnosis, and Smokey, a patient whose desperate wish to stay in hospital drives the play toward tragedy. Threaded through with dry humour and quiet tenderness, it asks what real care costs the people who give it.
Chantelle Dustelle
Bio:
Chantelle Dusette is an Associate Artist with Cardboard Citizens and enjoys a growing reputation as a writer for the stage, is alumni of the Criterion Theatre’s new writing and story development programmes, Oliver Lansley’s WildChild scheme for underrepresented writers, and John Yorke’s Screenwriting programme. Chantelle is driven to tell stories which elevate a diverse lived experience and reflect her social values, through storytelling that plays with stark reality & the fantastical. Her short ‘UTOPIA’ was included in Onyekachi Wambu’s anthology ‘Empire Windrush’, alongside pieces from Bernadine Evaristo and Zadie Smith.
Play:
‘Love Machine’. A near future drama. Relationship guru Dr Ricky Martin’s brand is at risk when fiancé Chloe leaves him as the wedding day approaches. In a bid to stem reputational risk, Ricky invests in Jess, a humanoid replica of Chloe, and markets her as a therapy doll. But as Jess gains intelligence, she begins to analyse her creator and detects something more sinister in Ricky.:
Niall McCarthy
Bio:
Niall McCarthy is an award nominated writer from Derry currently living in London. He often writes dark comedies set in the northwest of Ireland.
His full length theatre debut was at Theatre503 in May 2025 with his play ‘Derry Boys’, which received multiple 5 star reviews across its run. His short play ‘Die Trying’ was nominated for the Kenneth Branagh Award 2024. His Spec Pilot 'The Wild West' was selected for the Greenlight Screenwriting Labs where he developed a new drama pilot under the mentorship of Philip Shelley.
Play:
Tír na nÓg. When a government-backed energy scheme threatens her father’s rundown rural pub, a woman who hates drinking culture must learn what makes a great bar, and turn it into one in order to save it. Guided by a mysterious cowboy who believes life is meant to be lived fully, she learns to abandon the safe, grey life she has built for herself and finally embrace the messy, beautiful business of being alive.
Stephanie Dickson
Bio:
Stephanie is an actress and playwright who trained at The Guildford School of Acting. She focuses on creating interesting, layered, flawed, complicated, real women and telling their stories on stage in a relatable way. Stephanie's debut play, BARK was long-listed for the Theatre Royal Haymarket Pitch Your Play 2020, Second Round Papatango, Shortlisted by Sphinx Lab 30 2020, shortlisted for the Kenneth Branagh Award 2018/2019 and Shortlisted for Traverse Theatre's 2020 Season. It is currently available in Foyles/Waterstones.
Play:
Katharine Hepburn is living in my Lamp. 35 year-old Izzy is going through a monumental life change - and she’s not going through it alone.Should she call an electrician? Should she call a psychiatrist?Or... is Katharine Hepburn really living in her lamp?
A dark comedy-drama about heartbreak, identity, and the terrifying process of shedding light on who we really are when we're alone.
Elin Caracoglia
Bio:
Elin Caracoglia is a Swedish playwright based in London. Her play Creation Myth was shortlisted for the 2023 Woven Voices Prize, and longlisted for the 2025 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and the 2025 Ilfeld Prize. Her work has been performed at Riverside Studios, The Pleasance, Theatre503, and Southwark Playhouse.
Play:
I Am Going To Kill The President (Again): Betty has a lot of in common with presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth. She feels so connected to him, she has become convinced she is Booth, reincarnated. And now, she’s about to follow in his footsteps.