THE NORTH EAST PLAYWRITING AWARD

Stacy Abalogun

Stacy recently turned her hand to playwrighting last year after 13 years as a contemporary dancer and actor. Nice up Norf is her first stage play on her journey to sharing stories and awareness of Northern, Black, Queer, Minority culture and life. 

Stacy originally trained as a professional contemporary dancer (NSCD) and has a Masters in Choreography (Laban). She then went on to train as an actor at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA). 

Her works includes: 
Much Ado About Nothing, The Globe (2019) 
Poet in the corner, Royal court (2019) 
Casualty (2019)
Death on the Nile (2022) 
The Sandman (2021) 
Emmerdale (2023) 
Blue Jean (2023) 
Three Body Problem(2024) 

Stacy was also nominated for a Black British Theatre Award (2020) for Best Recent Graduate and a BIFA award (2023) for Best Ensemble. 

Short summary of your play:

Nice Up Norf is a story telling of Northern, Black, Queer culture. 

How does it feel to be a finalist?

I feel so grateful that my play has been recognized, I feel my voice is for the Northern community. There is so much awareness yet to be shared and I’m so grateful that I have the chance to share my voice.

Sam Honour

Sam is a writer, screenwriter and thetare-maker hailing from Gateshead. His first produced play was a rehearsed reading at Live Theatre’s Short Cuts event in 2009 when he was 17 and he has continued to be involved in theatre in the NE since then. He graduated from Northumbria University’s Drama and Scriptwriting course in 2012 and has since produced work at Alphabetti Theatre, Laurels and Theatre Royal. His writing was also included as part of the 24/7 Festival in Manchester and has been shortlisted for several writing awards including the Papatango prize, the Northern Writers Writing for Television award and The People's Play. His short film, The Hairiest Man in Newcastle, was awarded Best Film at the Witchflix Film Festival in Newcastle in 2023.


Short summary of your play:

A young Dudeist priest is forced to confront her self imposed estrangement from her deeply Catholic family when her father falls ill. As she brings him further into her world, she comes to realise that perhaps some relationships are worth salvaging, if you give them a chance.

How does it feel to be a finalist?

Being a finalist for the award in a region so packed to the gills with talent is deeply humbling. I don't think I can overstate how important an award like this is in a place like the North East where artists often struggle to get their voices heard. It really feels like times for NE artists are changing and the work local theatres like Live are doing are huge part of that. It's an honour to have been shortlisted for the inaugural North East Playwriting Award and I'd like to congratulate the other finalists and everyone who submitted. Putting your work out can be very scary so well done for taking that step!

Miles Kinsley

Miles is originally from North Yorkshire, but is now based in South Shields. He is also an actor and trained at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama.

Previous writing credits include: It’s All in Your Head (Laurels), A Christmas Carol (adaptation for Thunk-It Theatre & Pocklington Arts Centre), and The Southern Side of the Wall (Live Theatre). He is currently developing a new play – Tide – as part of Northern Broadsides’ Life in a Northern Town initiative.


Short summary of your play:

Where’s North from Here? depicts a world in which the United Kingdom has dissolved entirely. Those in charge do their utmost to spin this as a positive for England – a nation that can finally “reclaim its sovereignty from the shackles of the Union” – but people from across the North are not happy: they have a hard border to content with now, and beyond it angry hordes await… at least that’s what they’ve been told. As tensions build, the world starts to feel like a much smaller place, and everyone has to decide if they want to fight for their piece of it. Presenting a series of snapshots from across the North of England, this piece explores control, protest, ownership of space, and isolation.

How does it feel to be a finalist?

Miles is completely stunned to have been selected as a finalist! He feels honoured to be surrounded by so many talented writers and can’t wait to hear about the exciting, bold, and beautiful worlds they have all created – it is so inspiring to be working in a region full of people who want to tell and share stories, both within the creative industry and beyond. Writing can be an isolating and doubtful experience, but Miles wants to thank Live for all the support they have afforded him thus far.

S.L Page

S.L. Page is a disabled writer and artist. Their work ranges from theatre, to radio, TV, film, books and fine art embroidery. They are currently working as creator and writer of a new TV series with Hat Trick Mercurio; and on a Radio 4 Afternoon Drama, alongside their theatre work. They are an Associate Artist with Disability Arts Online
2024/2025, and last year they were a Creative Associate with New Writing North. Their work has been described by BBC News as “smashing the box of disabled feminism”. Their writing and fine art has been acquired by public collections including the Wellcome Collection.


Short summary of your play:
“Fall” is a play about Sherlock Holmes, Bipolar Disorder, and how mental distress can become part of a mythology. It also looks at themes of how we use and approach lived experience in art making, based on S.L. Page’s own experiences of bringing what they have been through in their life into a rehearsal room. It’s also funny!

How does it feel to be a finalist?
Amazing!! I am so excited to be a finalist and it has been a massive boost to my confidence in my writing.

Jane Purdon

I always say that if you want to understand me, you need to know that when I was a child my dad took me to Roker Park and my mum took me to the RSC’s annual season at the Theatre Royal. I have been driven by these twin passions – football and drama - all my life.

On the football side, I have worked in football for over 20 years. My first football job was as Sunderland AFC’s in-house lawyer. I went on to work at the Premier League as Director of Governance and followed this with a spell at UK Sport. In 2018, I joined Women in Football as their first ever CEO. Now, I have a portfolio/consultancy career as I carve out space for writing. I continue to have various roles in football and rugby.

As for my writing life, I started going to creative writing classes about 10 years ago. This culminated in my studying for a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2022 I completed my degree and was awarded a distinction.


Short summary of your play:

She’s Coming Home is set over a period of ten years from 2012 to 2022. It tells the story of the growth of women’s football through the stories of two young women, leading up to an epoch-defining climax at Wembley.

Lauren is twelve when the play opens and regularly goes with her dad to the Stadium of Light. She loves football and is a passionate red and white.

Kerry is also twelve. A gifted footballer and a Newcastle United fan, she’s well supported by her family who fight for her right to play football with the boys at school. When the school say she can no longer play, her parents set up a girls’ team.

The two girls first meet at trials at Sunderland’s Foundation of Light. Lauren is hopeless and overhears Kerry laughing at her. They argue, and Lauren storms off. A few years later, Lauren meets Kerry again. Kerry still feels guilty about laughing at Lauren, and offers to help her start a podcast about women in football. Lauren agrees, and the podcast Born Kicking is born.

The play follows their subsequent fortunes as Lauren’s podcast grow and Kerry matures into an exciting young footballer. Each girl suffers setbacks, many of them the result of structural misogyny in football. But Lauren and Kerry are part of the huge tide of women and girls setting out to change that and the play ends with both of them at Wembley on 31 July 2022 celebrating as the Lionesses finally bring football home.

How does it feel to be a finalist?

It is wonderful to be a finalist. Writing can be a lonely business and it means the world to have some recognition and praise. I’m particularly delighted to have reached the final of a competition run by a Newcastle theatre and with a play which very much tells an important tale from our region. Although I live down south, I remain a passionate North Easterner. If anything, my experiences in the south have taught me the importance of the North finding its voice and shouting its stories loud and proud.

Emilie Robson - WINNER

Emilie Robson is a North-East based screenwriter and playwright from South Shields. Her play Moonlight on Leith (co-written with Laila Noble) won the Scottish Art’s Club Bright Spark Award in 2018 and was named runner up at Theatre Uncut’s Political Playwriting Award ceremony in 2019. Her audio drama PICA was awarded special commendation at the 2021 Alfred Bradley Bursary Award and received a full production on BBC Radio 4. She was selected from over 5000 submissions to participate on the 2021 4Screenwriting course and went on to partake in the BBC Writers Room scheme the following year.

Short summary of your play:

Dogs on the Metro follows teenagers Jen and Dean, over a series of months and different timelines, as they travel back and forth on the Tyne and Wear metro line, unpacking their competing and conflicting versions of the same, pivotal event that changes their lives forever.

How does it feel to be a finalist?

I’m absolutely elated to be a finalist for the Live Theatre, North East Playwriting prize. Live Theatre and the region as a whole has such a rich storytelling tradition and to be acknowledged, amongst so many other great submissions is truly wonderful.

Pauline Trotry - RUNNER UP

I am playwright based in the Northeast of England and an AHRC Northern Bridge funded PhD candidate in Gothic Cinema at Newcastle University.

My first play, Cold, won Alphabetti’s Just Write competition in 2022. I have since developed my writing with Live Playwriting course during which I have wrote my first full-length script, Shards, which was part of the Scratch Night for the Elevator Festival at Live in 2023. I am currently working on two plays, Mermaids Don’t Drown and Of All the Trains I Have Missed. I am the founder of Saturday Write Live writing group and a co-founder of the Monsters and Posthuman group at Newcastle University.

I write horror-inflected stories that deal with (human) monsters and the twisted memories they create, with a strong emphasis on family relationships, isolation, and death.


Short summary of your play:

There's a shadow in Poe's house. It took her mam and her dad, but it won't take her because her sister is coming home in the morning to save her. She just needs to survive one more night before darkness closes in on her.

How does it feel to be a finalist?

I never expected, not in a million years, to be one of the finalists of this competition. I am infinitely excited and grateful to see that a piece of writing that is very close to my heart resonated with the readers. I am very new to playwriting and seeing Shards getting this far in the competition has really given me confidence in my writing. No matter what happens now, I’m thrilled to have made it to this stage.

Tracy Whitwell

Tracy was born and brought up in Gateshead and was a stage and screen actress for years, working between London and the North East. She then graduated to writing and directing, and is now also an author (and still acts when her arm is twisted). Her Accidental Medium series is published by Pan Macmillan and book three will be out in July, with book four coming next winter.

Short summary of your play:

Family rivalry, bleak comedy and a softly spoken killer come together in this tense, dark, northern tale of sibling war and deadly misunderstandings.

How does it feel to be a finalist?
I have worked at Live as an actress and as a writer many times over the years, and have a real love for this particular theatre and the people associated with it. I’m over the moon to be a finalist, here of all places. Like Geordie Christmas.

Jon Deery

Jon is a gender-fluid writer and activist from Darlington. So far, he’s been in a couple of plays with Newcastle Uni’s theatre society, and was lucky enough to co-write and co-direct a play at 2022’s Edinburgh Fringe festival, based on his real experiences working in a dodgy pub in Darlo (which shall remain nameless). He is currently interested in how to dramatise climate activism, as often media on the climate crisis focuses on conferences and scientists, rather than the stories of the people working on the ground to change the system!

Short summary of your play:
Jon spent most of 2022 in a pretty well-known (and not so well-liked) climate activist group, blocking oil refineries, spraying orange paint around, and generally worrying his parents. This play is an attempt to make sense of that time in Jon’s life; to represent the psychology of the young people putting themselves at risk and breaking the law to salvage the hope of a livable future. The two lead characters, Sam and Iona, find that doing “the right thing” isn’t as easy as it might appear…

How does it feel to be a finalist?
I honestly don’t know how it feels to be a finalist, because I think it’s still sinking in. The whole thing is surreal: it was therapeutic enough just to write the script, and to feel I’d put something into the world that tried to depict the reality of a lot of young activists. To find that so many people from different walks of life have already found something to connect with in this play is beyond anything I could’ve hoped for!

Connor Dorrian - WINNER

Connor Dorrian is a 22 year old actor, writer, director & facilitator from Sunderland. After recently graduating from an MA in Directing & Theatre-making at The Northern School of Art, he also recently completed the Live Theatre playwriting course (2024).

Connor has been involved with numerous projects in the North East: from performing in Theatre, short films & music videos to writing plays or assistant directing them. Most recently Connor won the response piece writing competition at Alphabetti with his play ‘Neon Brown’ for Disco Pigs.

Connor looks forward to growing as an artist within the region while sharing his skills, creativity and passion for the work.

Short summary of your play:
A North East story about teen life in county lines, that blurs coming of age with Greek tragedy. After his brother’s arrest, Lucas (now totally alone) learns there’s more to life than county lines. He must now make a choice…continue dealing or leave his brother behind.

How does it feel to be a finalist?
Amazing! I can’t actually believe it. Happy and surprised is anunderstatement.

Wambui Hardcastle - RUNNER UP

Wambui Hardcastle is a Northern maker, creating work for stage and other mediums as a performer, writer, and director. They're always up for the next creative adventure and making bold, colourful work with good people.

Wambui is extremely that they were lucky enough to grow up through Live Theatre's Youth Theatre and Northern Stage's Young Company that laid down the first foundation's of their artistic practice. They also credit their further development as an artist to the generous support of several companies Unfolding Theatre, : RTYDS, Eclipse Theatre, Greyscale, Frantic Assembly through their Ignition programme, Tmesis Theatre's Training Company, and The Knotted Project. Currently, alongside continued freelancing, Wambui is studying at year long intensive at All In Actors with the help of a scholarship from The Stage.

In Summer 2024, their audio piece "Time Flies In The Blink Of An Eye" will be shared at the National Trust site Seaton Delaval Hall. 'TFITBOAE' will be presented as part of an exhibition of work by the winners of the North East Emerging Artist Award 2022/2023

Short summary of your play

A stranger walks into a pub. The pub may be open but this is wrong because the stranger is early. Early perhaps by some decades. Because this is a pub where all the punters are dead, and the stranger is very very alive. But they've got bigger problems than this little cosmic upset - there's no more alcohol. The taps have run dry. And people are getting thirsty.

How does it feel to be a finalist?

Like my world's turned upside down in the best way. I haven't got much to say apart from thankyou to the readers for believing in the dreaming in my words.

Owen Saunders

Owen is a writer from Gateshead. His first play, Down the Lines, was performed at The Customs House as part of the 2022 Young Writer in Residence programme. His short play, Wild Crumb was performed at Alphabetti Theatre in 2023 and he recently completed the Playwriting Course at Live Theatre. Much of his creative voice has been found in writing about home, complex emotional relationships and Otherness.

Short summary of your play:
Souvenirs tells a year in the lives of a young couple, Charlotte and Marcus, as they both embark on separate ‘study abroad’ years at
university. Told through a mixture of voice and video calls, the play explores how we navigate love, intimacy and emotional trauma in the
digital age, and the tricky reality of the proverb, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’.

How does it feel to be a finalist?
I’m honestly a bit stunned! So often in this industry it feels as though you’re speaking into the void, pouring your heart out and hoping it resonates with people, and it’s easy to feel like you’re invisible. All of our art is inherently valuable, of course, but writing for performance is no solo venture and it can be a tough old journey from page to stage. It means a hell of a lot to know my work does resonate with people and I’m chuffed to have been recognised by such respected theatrical voices. Whatever happens next, I’m excited for the future!

Laurie Ward - Live Theatre/Northumbria University Research Award WINNER

Laurie is a theatre-maker who enjoys lurking between comedy, theatre and performance art. She is co-director of multi-award winning devised theatre company ‘piss / CARNATION’, through which she distills transfemme experiences into brutal and surreal theatre productions. She is passionate about multifaceted, honest and high-octane representations of transfemininity.

Short summary of your play

‘Real, Mad World’ was Laurie’s first ever work for stage. It is a t4t love-story about the pleasure and pain of yearning.

How does it feel to be a finalist?

It feels incredible! I thought this play’s life was over! It is the first play I ever wrote and I did that, I guess, quite classic thing where you leave a play for a year or so and decide it is trash and unworthy of attention. I think I’m quite a juvenile writer like that. So it is nice to have someone hold my hand and be like no you should look at it again! There’s something cute and interesting and skillful here!

Jenny Wong

Jenny Wong is a second year English literature with creative writing student at Newcastle university.

Short summary of your play:
My play is about family and how sometimes just love is not enough.

How does it feel to be a finalist?
Surreal, I still can’t believe this is happening.