We want Bristol Old Vic to feel like a home for writers, and for the production of new plays in both our theatre spaces to be a part of our DNA.

Through our Literary Programme we support writers and their collaborators to develop their craft, build a sustainable practice & commission work for development and presentation here at Bristol Old Vic. 

PROJECTS

THE FIVE YEAR COMMITMENT | EARLY CAREER WRITERS GROUP | COMMISSIONING | RESIDENCIES | PEGGY RAMSAY / FILM 4 WRITER ON ATTACHMENT

The Five Year Commitment

The South West and the rest of the UK continue to produce amazing writers whose work can be seen on stages and screens all over the country; however, there are challenges when it comes to consistent and long-term commitment in a landscape where often writers are working to the short-term and from job to job; we want to use the resource that we have to give focused opportunities for writers to build their craft and their voice over time and within the holding of a singular place.

Inspired by the long-term commitments made by residencies in theatres such as Signature Theatre in New York and thanks to the incredibly generous support of John Studzinski and the Genesis Foundation Prize, we are able to kickstart our Five Year Commitment.

Bristol Old Vic has committed to residencies for four writers at different levels of experience for a period of five years, starting in January 2025. Those writers are Winsome Pinnock, Hannah Khalil, Sam Parker and Muneera Pilgrim. Over this time, we’ll use our resources and expertise to allow these writers the time and space to develop and present new work. Additional to that, we’ll use our resources to support the space between those commissions, connecting the writers with each other and ensuring they feel embedded and at home in our theatre.

We feel this sort of long-term commitment and support is needed at all stages of a writer’s career. Read more about our writers and the programme on our blog below.

How will the residency work?

The current proposed structure of the offer to each writer over all five years is as follows:

• We will commission Winsome to write one new play and produce one revival of an existing play within her repertoire across the residency.
• We will commission Hannah, Muneera and Sam to write two new plays across the residency.
• All four writers will be supported to go on an annual week-long residential together, facilitated by the BOV Literary team, with space created to think together and consider some of the bigger questions around their work and practice.
• All four writers will have access to a small yearly budget separate to any commissioning support. The writers will have the agency to decide how to apportion this budget, but it can be used for anything from research & development experiments to research aims or training opportunities. We will support them to think about how this budget can be spent but ultimately it will be up to them.
• Hannah, Sam & Muneera will also be awarded a small monthly financial stipend of £300 p/month across all five years. This is in recognition of the instability and inconsistency of writing work, particularly at early and mid-career points, and aims to give these writers a guaranteed small income floor that can support their time to practice and write outside of the specific parameters of a commission.
• All four writers will be offered space and time to base themselves and their work within our building, engaging with Bristol Old Vic’s programme and to be as much a part of the working life of the organisation as they want to be. We would like them to consider the building as their writing home throughout all five years. This offer will be responsive and bespoke to the wants and needs of each individual writer.

An important note on the commissioning. We know that writers need to have their work produced and that this is a crucial part of every writer’s development. Every commission that a writer receives within the Five Year Commitment will be made with the intent that we will make absolute best efforts to produce that new work on one of our stages as soon as it is ready for production. We can’t see into the future, and we haven’t guaranteed production alongside commission as we don’t know the journey each commission will take us on, but it’s important that we state that this intent is a crucial part of the Five Year Commitment offer. All new commissions will be contracted separately to our Five Year Commitment agreement with the writer and under the structure and terms of our Writers Guild of Great Britain/UK Theatre Agreements at point of commission.

This is the plan as we imagine it right now, but we see this commitment as a living, breathing thing. We have chosen to commit to writers over five years because we also want to stay open to the idea that with such a long-term commitment, the plan as written above may change dependent on who those writers are. We will always want to make this a flexible and malleable residency that has room to shift its focus depending on where each of our artists take us. We’re excited to see where things go.

Our 2024/2025 Early Career Writers Group

In July 2024, applications opened to writers based in the South West to take part in a new free-to-access programme hosted by Bristol Old Vic and led by local playwright Ross Willis (Wolfie, Wonder Boy) to support those at the very beginning of their career to take bold next steps with their practice.  

Sukina Noor, Erin Peacock, Raynor Taylor and Roxana Vilk are the first cohort of this scheme and are working with BOV from December 2024 to June 2025.

Sukina Noor is the current Bristol City Poet (2024-2026). She has toured extensively across the UK, Europe, America and Africa and is currently on the board of Black Creatives Bristol. Sukina wrote her first play Afropean / Human Being that premiered at the Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels in Feb 2020. Her debut poetry collection Love and Longing: Yearning for the Face of God was released in October 2023 and her spoken word album of the same name will be released in the Spring of 2025.  

Sukina says: "Theatre was one of the earliest ways I came to understand how the arts can be transformative and transportive, opening portals to different worlds and realities. As a poet I am used to telling my own stories and capturing the exhales of my heart, but theatre is a newer territory that I’d like to learn more about, so I am so excited for this opportunity.”

Erin Peacock is a writer of dark comedy. Originally from Peterborough, she now lives in Bristol and is driven to uncover our universal foibles, through and close observation and sly humour, often interrogating class identity, strained family dynamics and, mostly, death.  

Erin says: “I’m most looking forward to the freedom of experimenting with playwriting for the first time, as well as experiencing the joy of creating new work alongside other South West creatives.” 

Raynor Taylor comes from a film background is a dedicated writer and filmmaker, passionate about highlighting social concerns in modern society. Raynor's work has gained recognition in prestigious industry competitions, and she is a proud alumni member of The Network at the Edinburgh Film and TV Festival.

Raynor says: “I've spent years sat in the front row watching and observing the different art forms staged at the Bristol Old Vic, pen and pad geekily in hand. Theatre is raw, reactive and leaves you no place to hide. I honestly feel privileged that I get to write about the experiences I’m passionate about representing. I’ve been waiting to breathe life into these characters, and I could not be in better hands than with the Bristol Old Vic.” 

Roxana Vilk is an Iranian/British musician, actor and filmmaker. At the heart of her process is collaboration and an inclusive practice. She has worked with a wide variety of UK communities, as well as internationally across post-war zones, to create work around the themes of roots, heritage, belonging and identity. 

Roxana says: “I am a multi-disciplinary theatre-maker by nature and I’ve made work in all sorts of different forms but I am so excited to focus and develop my craft as a playwright. I have so much to say and I am looking forward to learning lots and being inspired!” 

Applications for the 2025-26 cohort will open in July 2025.

The information below gives you an idea of the activity for our 24/25 Programme and is shared for anyone who may have an interest in future editions of the programme.

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We want to encourage and support early career writers to take bold next steps with their practice. As part of our literary programme, we will be inviting a group of early career playwrights to take part in a new free-to-access programme hosted by Bristol Old Vic and lead by industry professionals, scheduled across several weeks from December 2024 to June 2025.

Our key intentions for this programme are:

• To build meaningful relationships between BOV and the participating writers, making them feel like they are members of our BOV community, not just visitors
• Give space and time for flexibility to the needs of the group over the course
• Give space and time to experience the joy of creating a play
• Create a submission and feedback loop that closely resembles what participants might encounter professionally with a theatre literary department, a test run for their future.
• Placing emphasis on seeing work (at BOV and elsewhere) to keep conversations about liveness and audience alive throughout
• We want to facilitate a joyful space where writers bond with their peers and trust themselves, each other & their lead writer to create and share brave new work.

Practically, how will it work?

• Four writers have been selected in the first year
• Selected writers are based in the South West
• We have a light touch application process: tell us a bit about yourself and share a bit of your writing.
• The programme is lead in the first year by local playwright Ross Willis (Wolfie, Wonder Boy)
• There is no age limit on participation – you just need to be ‘early’ in your practice
• 8 – 12 sessions are programmed across a commitment of 6 months, designed to fit around/outside of existing work commitments
• There is a focus on training and skills development through writing workshops early in the programme
• There is the opportunity to develop and share your writing for the stage with your cohort, lead writer and the BOV Literary team for feedback
• Bursaries & stipends are available to participants to navigate barriers to attendance
• Writers are able to access space to work in, invitations to press nights, free tickets to Bristol Old Vic shows as well as discounts in our bar and kitchen throughout the programme

Commissioning & Grants

We want to continue to develop & commission new work at Bristol Old Vic, working locally and nationally to support writers and writing; currently we have three ways of doing this: 

Commissions: we commission writers to work on plays and adaptations, with a view to developing and producing this work on one of our stages. 

Co-Production Grants: we partner with independent artists & companies to offer a financial contribution to their budget, a programmed slot in one of our theatres & bespoke in-kind support that helps them to build & produce an ambitious show as part of our programme. 

Seed Grants: we offer a small cash contribution that begins new artist support relationships with independent artists & companies based in or from the South West. These small commissions might fund some early stage research & development, some time with a new creative collaborator or a reading/work-in-progress.

If you have an idea that you think would be a good fit for some commissioning support from Bristol Old Vic, you should get in touch with us using our Open Submissions process, which our team regularly review and respond to throughout the year.

Residencies

We understand the value & impact that residencies can have on artistic processes & particularly on writers; time and space away from the day-to-day to rest, nourish yourself and your practice and explore new ideas or ways of working. We are beginning a new partnership with our friends at Hawkwood CFT to offer writing residencies throughout the year. 

If you would benefit from some artistic residency time & space, please use our Open Submissions portal to get in touch.

Peggy Ramsay / Film 4 Playwrights Award

Bristol Old Vic were delighted to work with Florence Espeut-Nickless as a 2024 recipient of The Peggy Ramsay Film4 Playwrights Awards. This long-running scheme celebrates and supports emerging British writing talent. The 2024 initiative is awarding six bursaries to new theatre writers, each worth £10,000. Four bursaries are supported by The Peggy Ramsay Foundation (one is dedicated to the memory of literary agent Tom Erhardt) and two by Film4.  

Florence embarked on a one-year attachment to Bristol Old Vic, joining our team to make new connections in the industry and gain first-hand experience of a working theatre. Florence’s main task in the 12 month attachment was to write at least one full-length play, supported by the Bristol Old Vic literary team. 

Alongside Florence, the other recipients of the 2024 bursaries were: 

• Babirye Bukilwa - Clean Break & Soho Theatre 
• Shahid Iqbal Khan - Paines Plough 
• Martha Loader - New Wolsey Theatre 
• Marek Horn - Hampstead Theatre 
• Morna Young - Traverse Theatre