ETT Announces Second Year Of Flagship Playwright Development Scheme - Nationwide Voices

ETT (English Touring Theatre) today announces the second year of its flagship playwriting programme Nationwide Voices in collaboration with five new partner theatres and companies. The year-long development programme aims to nurture and amplify a cadre of five exciting new voices, helping to bring their work onto mid-scale stages across Britain.

Year two of Nationwide Voices is led by ETT in collaboration with Bristol Old Vic, Graeae, Nottingham Playhouse, Octagon Theatre Bolton and Theatre Royal Plymouth, with venues and companies offering an attachment for their chosen playwright, who each have a meaningful connection to the local area. This year the playwrights are Amy Bethan Evans (Bristol Old Vic), Lettie Precious (Graeae), Naomi Obeng (Nottingham Playhouse), Hannah Wilkin (Octagon Theatre Bolton) and Mich Sanderson (Theatre Royal Plymouth).

Nationwide Voices exists to connect writers with mid-scale theatres and companies to help them break through onto main stages, while also facilitating theatres and companies nationwide in platforming fresh and imaginative voices. These five talented writers will develop their craft and expand their practice to the mid-scale through regular workshop sessions led by award-winning playwright and Artistic Director of tiata fahodzi, Chinonyerem Odimba. Throughout the course of the programme, each writer will develop a play of imaginative ambition and scale, with opportunities to develop their pieces with and for local communities. These plays will then be shared spring 2022 in a festival of rehearsed readings, with ETT and partners working towards further commissioning, co-producing, and touring the plays in the future.

Nationwide Voices is made possible by funding from the John Ellerman Foundation with additional support from the D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust.

Artistic Director and Executive Producer of ETT, Richard Twyman and Sophie Scull today said: "Nationwide Voices sits at the heart of ETT's mission and our efforts to foster exciting new talent nationwide; to reflect the diversity of our nation in the work we develop and the artists we collaborate with; to make work that resonates with a wide range of audiences, that is both creatively empowering and financially accessible; and to work with playwrights who are pushing the boundaries of form and content to platform their voices on mid-scale stages.

We are excited to be working with five excellent partners who are cultural leaders making fantastic work across England - Bristol Old Vic, Graeae, Nottingham Playhouse, Octagon Theatre Bolton, and Theatre Royal Plymouth. The five playwrights, Amy, Lettie, Naomi, Hannah and Mich are all outstanding, deeply imaginative talents, and we are lucky to work with them - and with the brilliant Chinonyerem Odimba, whose guidance and insight will be a vital part of the programme. We look forward to supporting them to make work that resonates nationwide. We are grateful to the John Ellerman Foundation for making this programme possible, and for the D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust for their additional support."

Lead facilitator and Artistic Director of tiata fahodzi Chinonyerem Odimba added, "I'm truly thrilled to be working with ETT and partner theatres to support this group of writers over the next few months. This kind of space and workshop time is invaluable to me as a writer, and I hope I can give some of that back. Excited to get started!"

The Playwrights

Amy Bethan Evans (she/her) is a playwright, dramaturg and disability activist. Her work includes Libby's Eyes (Bunker Theatre, 2018), Tinted (Bloomsbury Theatre 2018 and Vaults 2020), Pink Statements (Arcola Theatre, Wardrobe Theatre and Salisbury Arts Centre 2019), Neurodiverge-Aunt (Royal Court's Living Newspaper), To Be My Eyes (Theatre 503) Normal Day (Theatre Clywd), and Lesser Spotted (Graeae). Amy is on commission to the Royal Court and on attachment with Bristol Old Vic and The National Theatre Studio, having completed an attachment with the Bush.

Naomi Obeng (she/her) is a British playwright and arts critic from France. Her theatre work includes A Distance Between (Paines Plough), Jack and the Beanstalk, Where It Lands (Nottingham Playhouse), and A Town Cry For Today (New Perspectives), I'll Show You The Oranges (Young Court at the Royal Court). She was a writer in residence at Leicester Curve, and has new work in development with 45North. Her first full-length play We'll Be Who We Are was shortlisted for the inaugural Women's Prize for Playwriting in 2020.

Lettie Precious (they/them) is a British playwright, poet, author and artist. Their theatre credits include The Grey Area, My White Best Friend (Royal Court Theatre), 15 Heroines: Oenone (Jermyn Street Theatre), This Is Us (Bush Theatre), Backpacks and School Books (Soho Theatre), My Girl Pauletta (Oval Playhouse), The Wine That Sweeps Away The Dust (Arcola Lab), and Dance With Me (Theatre Royal Stratford East). For radio, their work includes ORLANDO and REFLECTION. They won the 2019/2020 Royal Court and Kudos Fellowship and recently completed the 2019/2020 BBC Writers' Room. Their first full length play, THIS IS US, is in development with Graeae.

Mich Sanderson (they/them) is a playwright, theatre practitioner and director. Their theatre credits include Girl(ing) (Theatre Royal Plymouth/UK Tour), and Realness (Plymouth Fringe Festival). They are a Theatre Royal Plymouth associate artist, currently on commission to the theatre with their play exploring rural trans identities, Airy-Fairy, and, with a close collaborator, Mich is the recipient of this year's SHIFT Development Fund from Wiltshire Creative, for a new verbatim project exploring the lived experience of the South West's LGBTQ+ youth.

Hannah Wilkin (she/her) is a playwright. Her theatre work includes This Tree is for the Chop (Octagon Theatre), which was shortlisted for the Royal Court's Lynne Gagliano Award in 2019. Hannah is in her second year of her PhD in Creative Writing at Newcastle University. She is writing two plays for her PhD, influenced by her time working with an over 65's dance group and as a Sales Assistant in a Charity Shop.

Chinonyerem Odimba is a Nigerian British playwright, screenwriter, and poet. Her recent work includes Medea (Bristol Old Vic), We Too, Are Giants, The Seven Ages of Patience (Kiln Theatre), Unknown Rivers (Hampstead Theatre), Prince and the Pauper (Watermill Theatre), Princess & The Hustler (Eclipse Theatre/Bristol Old Vic/Hull Truck), The Bird Woman of Lewisham (Arcola Theatre), Rainy Season, and His Name is Ishmael (Bristol Old Vic) Joanne (Clean Break), Amongst the Reeds (Clean Break/The Yard Theatre), Twist (Theatre Centre) and Sweetness of a Sting (NT Connections). In 2018 she was awarded the Sonia Friedman Productions Award in recognition of her play How To Walk On The Moon, written in association with Talawa Theatre under the Channel 4 Playwrights' Scheme. Her play Wild is De Wind was shortlisted for the 2015 Bruntwood Prize, and she has previously been shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award and the Adrienne Benham Award. For television, her credits include Scotch Bonnet, A Blues for Nia, Adulting and My Best Friend Married a Warrior. For radio, her credits include The Last Flag, and Eve.

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