Announcing...the first five of our Fun Palaces playwrights

As we write, all of our playwrights are writing their Fun Palaces plays. So we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce them this week. The first five to welcome are...

Branwen Davies

Branwen is a playwright who writes in Welsh and English. She has written for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Sherman Cymru, Living Pictures, Undeb Theatre, Dirty Protest, Agent 160 and True Fiction Theatre Company. Branwen is currently a PhD student at Aberystwyth University. 

Sandra Bendelow

Sandra is a writer and theatre producer. As a writer, she works in all mediums: theatre, radio, TV, film and is currently exploring cross-platform presentation of work including web and social media interfaces.
Her short monologue, One Hour and Forty Five Minutes, written for Dirty Protest Theatre's plays-in-a-bag project was produced at the Royal Court, Theatre Clwyd and National Theatre Wales' Dirty Gifted and Welsh. Her short audio drama Cursed was produced for EarCandy.  Her TV Script Dead Gran Walking was placed top 12 (of 250) in BBC Drama Wales Award and top 25 (of 2,500) Red Planet Television Prize in 2012. She was selected for Spread The Word, Sherman Cymru scheme for emerging writers 2012 and selected for the Ty Newydd Mentoring Project with Kaite O'Reilly. She is currently working on a seed commission for National Theatre Wales and a Christmas play for Dirty Protest Theatre. She is also developing a cross disciplinary project with Annie Suganami and composer Nick Jones and a narrative play about the Talybont floods with Rebecca Smith Williams and Stephanie Tillotson. She is a member of all female writer-led company Agent 160 Theatre.
Sandra runs Aberystwyth Arts Centre’s Writing for Performance Group and the Crash Test performance scratch night supporting and mentoring writers for performance.

Sam Burns

Sam Burns was born in Cardiff. She worked for several years as an editor for a small publishing company, and more recently as an assistant to a gardener. Her produced work includes a piece in Paines Plough’s Come to Where I’m From, ‘Two Bears’ for Sixty Six Books at the Bush Theatre and ‘Amnesty’ in Agent 160 Presents Agent 160. Her first full-length play, Not the Worst Place, was produced by Paines Plough, Theatr Clwyd and Sherman Cymru in April-May 2014, and was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award in 2011. She has also written two novels, one of which, The Story Unmakers, was shortlisted in Susan Hill’s Long Barn Books first novel competition in 2007. She lives partly in the Shetland Islands, occasionally in London and intermittently in Rajasthan, where she has a share in a camel.  

Vittoria Cafolla

Vittoria's play ‘Raiders of the Lost Story Arc’ premiered at the Belfast Film Festival in April 2011. In January 2011, her short radio piece Egg-timing was produced by BBC NI and directed by Eoin O Callaghan as part of the BBC's 360 Scriptwriting Festival. Vittoria often collaborates with Skewiff Theatre Company: The Waiting Room was produced during The Belfast Fringe Festival in late 2010, and she is currently working with Skewiff on an interactive piece based on the Guardian's 'The Ex Files'.

Poppy Corbett

Poppy is a playwright and director based in London. Most recently, her play Hatchling won the Pitch Your Play competition run by Masterclass and received a reading on the main stage at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. She has had short plays produced at the Soho Theatre, Theatre 503, the Old Red Lion, Southwark Playhouse, Chapter Arts, The Arches, and at the Arcola. Her book, The Enormous Book of Talk for Writing Games (a KS2 resource for primary school teachers), was published last year. Poppy is Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

That's just the first five! Throughout this week we'll be shining a spotlight on the remaining writers and spreading the word. We're excited that our Kickstarter is at 58% and keeps growing. Every single pound that's being pledged reiterates that this project is much wanted, much needed, and very much coming alive.