Artist Forum Open Scratch Night

Ifẹ Grillo

@ifetalksback 

Ifẹ Grillo is an award-winning writer, performer and educator known for their innovative and comical exploration of humanity. Ifẹ’s work has been published by Penguin Books, Verve Poetry Press and BBC Arts. They’re a previous winner of the National University Poetry Championships, and a National Poetry finalist.

Their one-man theatre show, ‘Ode to Heros’, debuted at the UK Young Artist Festival. Alongside five other artists, they wrote and performed ‘Language is a Queer Thing’, which debuted at the BBC's Festival and went on to be performed at the Mumbai International Literature Festival. They also regularly freelance as a dramaturg for Ad Infinitum theatre in Bristol.

India Rodgers & Phoebe Mulcahy

@india_writes_sometimes

India is a playwright based in Bristol, with a Distinction in MA Scriptwriting from Bath Spa University. She has had her writing produced both nationally and internationally, including by Eclectic Full Contact Theatre (Chicago, USA) and Tobacco Factory Theatre, and at the Edinburgh Fringe. In her writing, India enjoys examining the female experience, identity, social constructs, and the theme of ‘person-as-product’.

Phoebe is a director, actor and theatre maker based in Bristol. She trained at University of Exeter. Since then, she has worked in classical plays and new writing. She took the leap into directing in 2021 with companies such as The Scullions and Uncaged. Meeting India through working together on a South West tour of ‘Cycles’ with The Scullions, the duo created ‘He Wears It Well’, taking it to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023. Now they are sharing a snippet of India’s brilliant script ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Funds’ for the first time.

Robert Furey & Elliot Winter

Robert is an Irish-Jamaican writer and director of theatre and film. Whether creating bold original work or reinterpreting classics, he makes theatre that imaginatively tackles contemporary issues of gender and race from an intersectional perspective informed by his cultural background. He has performed new work in London, Los Angeles and Athens and holds a Master’s degree in directing from LAMDA. Most recently, he staged a performance of debbie tucker green’s dirty butterfly at the Orange Tree Theatre and is currently a participating writer on Smock Alley’s Baptiste Programme for Black-Irish playwrights. He draws stylistic influence from across different mediums, with a special affinity for pulp cinema and comic books and is interested in the translation of style across different art forms.  

Elliot is an actor and theatre-maker from Bristol. He trained at the Oxford School of Drama and has worked on various theatre projects and occasionally on screen. More recently, he has been exploring writing alongside performing.

Benedict Krekorian

@BenedictKrekorian 

Benedict is a Lived-Experience facilitator and empowerment speaker about mental health, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and resilience, who grew up in Somerset with ethnic roots in Ireland and Armenia. As an actor and filmmaker, he’s always on the lookout for collaborators and creative partners

DELiRIUM

@delirium.the.artist

DELiRIUM, Bristol’s pioneering female drag queen, has spent a decade defying gender limitations and commanding male dominated spaces. Now, with an Arts Council grant, she embarks on a bold transition beyond the chaos of cabaret and nightlife into the expansive possibilities of theatre. Her work explores transformation as resistance and speculative world-building as an exploration of PTSD, where the boundaries between the real and the imagined dissolve into the otherworldly as she reclaims agency through storytelling.

Rina Vergano

Rina is a Bristol-based mother, grandmother, playwright, performer, and emcee of variety shows. “I'm interested in community, activism, entertaining audiences and staying alive and sane. And making lists. I'm often uncertain about how to proceed as an older woman artist, so recently I'm experimenting with a wig, a harmonium and words to see how it goes down.”