New plays are important. Creating them is important. This is why we support new writers with a view to developing them as artists rather than expecting them to deliver a product. We are committed to enhancing and developing the process by which plays are created, directed and produced. We actively interrogate the writer/director relationship and value work throughout the entire creative process.

Artistic Director – Melissa Dunne

I have 15 years experience of writing, developing and directing new plays. I am currently developing a number of writing projects for screen, as well as work for the stage. My work explores social inequality – particularly as it pertains to class and disability – and intersectional feminism. I work with both traditional and post-dramatic texts, and have worked with a number of contemporary European playwrights in translation. Directing credits include Lola, ‘Crisply staged with a good eye for spatial tension by Melissa Dunne’ Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor’ and Dangerous Lenses, both at Vault Festival, Masterpieces and Just to Get Married by Cicely Hamilton, both at Finborough Theatre. Praise for Just to Get Married; Susannah Clapps ‘Best Theatre of 2017’ ‘Staged with wit and efficiency by Melissa Dunne.’ Ben Brantley, The New York Times ★★★★ Evening Standard ★★★★ The Times ★★★★ The Observer. My writing includes Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands at Vault Festival 2020, Reviews Hub 4.5 stars “This is stirring stuff, and is one of the stand-out shows of the Vault Festival so far.”

I am Artistic Director of Papercut Theatre. For the last decade balanced my work as a director, writer and dramaturg, while teaching playwriting on the prestigious MA/MFA Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, during this time having taught over 260 writers. Recent graduates of this course include Bruntwood Award winners Tolu Okanlawon and Katherine Soper, Yale drama prize shortlisted writer Rianna Simons, Tony Craze Award Winners Louis Emmit-Stern and Sophie Swithinbank, Noga Flaishon, Igor Memic, Aneesha Srinivasan and Eleanor Tindall. My education work informs my creative practice and vice versa.

I have worked as a script reader for the National Theatre of Great Britain, The Bush theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Graeae Theatre and Verity Bargate Award and the Soho Theatre among others.

Associate Sound Designer – Jon McLeod

Jon McLeod – Studied BA Sound Design at the Leeds College of Music and MA Advanced Theatre Practice at the Central School of Speech and Drama.  Recent theatre credits include mph (Papercut Theatre, BAC/nabokov), I Still Get Excited When I See A Ladybird (Papercut Theatre, Theatre503),The Invisible Show (Latitude Festival), Woman Bomb (Tristan Bates), Cut Off (Theatre 503 & Tristan Bates), Blue Fence (The Pleasance), Safer (Tristan Bates),Messrs Comedy (Leicester Square Theatre), Mojo Mickybo (Old Red Lion), Whose Cloud is it Anyway? (The People’s Show) and Remedies for Loneliness (New Diorama). Outside of theatre, he designs sound installations and has showed work as part of the Sonic Arts Expo and the Light Neville Street project.  www.jonmcleod.com