Nancy Harris is from Dublin, where her comedy No Romance was a huge hit for the Abbey Theatre in 2011.
Paven Virk founded the Second Generation Theatre Company at 17. She has been part of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme, the NFTS Screenwriting for Film&TV Course and the Theatre Royal Stratford East Musical Theatre Writing Residency.
Craig Higginson is a novelist, playwright and theatre director. He is the Literary Manager and dramaturge at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg and teaches playwriting at Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Anders Lustgarten is Pearson Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre. His plays include A Day at the Racists.
Plays include Wolf Lullaby, Fortune, The Falls, The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Ruysch, Memmie Le Blanc, The Bloody Bride, The Mysteries: Genesis, The Splinter, The White Divers of Broome and adaptations of The Seagull, The Hypochondriac and of the film The Red Balloon. She also writes for opera, song cycles and musical theatre.
Hilary is the co-creator of bestselling children's books 'Alphabetical Sydney', 'Numerical Street' and 'The Marvellous Funambulist of Middle Harbour'. She is a member of playwrights' company 7-On and a graduate of the Juilliard Playwrights' Studio, the National Institute of Dramatic Art and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. She was the Tennessee Williams Fellow 2003-04, and the 2012 Patrick White Playwrights' Fellow at the Sydney Theatre Company.
Craig Higginson is a playwright, novelist and theatre director. His plays include Dream of the Dog (which transferred to the Trafalgar Studios on the West End), The Girl in the Yellow Dress (on at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh 2010), The Jungle Book and Little Foot (commissioned by the National Theatre for the 2012 Connections Festival). Craig has won several awards in South Africa and the United Kingdom, including a Sony Gold Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First and a Naledi Award. His plays are represented by PFD.
Michael Lesslie is an English playwright, with many stage and screen adaptations to his name. His The Constant Prince completed an acclaimed international tour before transferring to both London's Arcola Studio and the Oxford Playhouse in 2005. In 2007 he adapted Swimming with Sharks, while his Prince of Denmark was performed at the National Theatre as part of 2012's Connection season.
Anders Lustgarten is Pearson Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre, where his first two plays, The Insurgents (2007) and Enduring Freedom (2008), were produced. Other work includes The Punishment Stories, (shortlisted for the 2007 Verity Bargate Award), an adaptation of Slawomir Mrozek's The Police (BAC 2007), The Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgeoisie (2010) for the National Theatre Studio and If You Don't Let Us Dream Then We Won't Let You Sleep (Royal Court, 2013). Anders is a political activist, has taught on Death Row, been arrested by the Turkish secret police, and holds a PhD in Chinese politics from the University of California. He also won the inaugural Harold Pinter Playwrights Award with a commission from the Royal Court in 2011.
Rory Mullarkey's original plays include Pity, The Wolf from the Door (Royal Court Theatre), Saint George and the Dragon (Royal National Theatre), Each Slow Dusk (Pentabus Theatre/UK Tour), Cannibals, Single Sex (Royal Exchange, Manchester), The Grandfathers (National Theatre Connections, then Bristol Old Vic/National Theatre) and On the Threshing Floor (Heat&Light Company, Hampstead Theatre). His adaptations/translations include The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (Bristol Old Vic/Manchester Royal Exchange), The Oresteia by Aeschylus (Shakespeare's Globe) and Remembrance Day by Aleksey Scherbak (Royal Court). He has written the libretti for The Skating Rink by David Sawer (Garsington Opera), Coraline by Mark-Anthony Turnage (Royal Opera House) and The Way Back Home by Joanna Lee (ENO/Young Vic). He has won the Abraham Woursell Prize (co-winner 2017), the James Tait Black Prize for Drama (2014), the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright (co-winner, 2014), the Harold Pinter Commission for the Royal Court (2014) and the Pearson Bursary for the Royal Exchange, Manchester (2011).
Steven Sater is an American playwright, lyricist, screen and television writer and poet. In 2007 he won the Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score for Spring Awakening, as well as the Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Awards for Best Lyrics. The show went on to win the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. Sater has written a number of plays: Carbondale Dreams, Perfect for You, Doli, Umbrage, A Footnote to the Iliad, Asylum, Murder at the Gates, In Search of Lost Wings, and a version of The Tempest. In 2012 his play Alice By Heart, cowritten with Duncan Sheik was produced as part of the National Theatre's Connections: Plays for Young People.
Meera Syal (b. 1963, Wolverhampton) is an English writer and actress. Educated at Manchester University, she was co-writer for a three-part BBC television series My Sister Wife, and wrote the screenplay for Bhaji on the Beach (Channel 4). A cast member and co-writer for Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42, her play Generation Next was programmed as part of the National Theatre's Connections 2012: Plays for Young People.
Paven Virk founded the Second Generation Theatre Company at 17. She has been part of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme, the NFTS Screenwriting for Film&TV Course and the Theatre Royal Stratford East Musical Theatre Writing Residency. Her play The Usual Auntijies (published by Methuen Drama) premiered at the Belgrade Theatre B, Coventry in 2011, while So You Think You're a Superhero? formed part of 2012's National Theatre Connections Plays for Young People.
Samir Yazbek is a celebrated Brazilian writer whose plays have been performed internationally and translated into several languages. Plays include: Terra Prometida/Promised Land; As Folhas do Cedro/Cedar-Tree Leaves and A Entrevista/The Interview. In 2012 his play The Ritual was programmed as part of The National Theatre's Connections: Plays for Young People.
