The HighTide Writers Group is a 12 month long programme to support 6 East of England playwrights, at any point of their career, aspiring or established, to develop their craft and draft a new play. The group is run by HighTide with leading playwrights and facilitators Juliet Gilkes Romero (The Whip, RSC) and Tim Price (Nye, National Theatre).
HighTide Writers Group 2024 Cohort
Marie Cooper
Marie, a Norwich-based playwright, explores class, identity, and societal privilege in her work. ‘Abandoned Places’ featured in Slow Theatre Company’s 2018 promenade play ‘Spirit of the Place.’ ‘The Jade Palace,’ part of The Literal Challenge 2021, showcased her writing following the demanding 28 Plays Later challenge. ‘Unlocked,’ was featured in the Walking Plays in 2021, earning Dramatist Magazine recognition. Marie enjoys exploring a diverse range of themes, including technology, memory, loss, and social commentary, in her storytelling. She loves delving into morally grey characters, aiming to evoke emotion and leave audiences pondering long after the curtain falls.
Clare Currie
Clare Currie lives in Great Yarmouth and writes about the power and resilience of women’s bodies, muscle memory, female camaraderie and the maternal habits of Pelicans!
She received Arts Council funding to develop her creative practice, culminating in her first one-person theatre piece Cold Snap, which wrestles with the demands of motherhood, the ageing process and the joy of playing sport. She has written for Jumped Up Theatre, Eastern Angles and Paines Plough, was Peterborough Poet Laureate 2017-19 and is a founding member of Syntax Poetry Festival.
Ted Marriott
Ted Marriott is a writer and performer from Suffolk. He is an alumnus of the University of Nottingham, National Youth Theatre, Old Vic Theatre Makers, the Bush Theatre Emerging Writer’s Group and received a year’s mentorship in scriptwriting from Arts Emergency. Ted’s writing is particularly inspired by Tennessee William’s Plastic Theatre form, and he’s interested in scripts that explore our relationship to history, temporalities, space, and politics. Alongside his solo writing, he is a theatre-maker with the emerging theatre company Five Pigeons Pecking a Bin Bag.
Anoop Singh
Anoop B. Singh is a British Punjabi writer who lives in Ipswich and works across East Anglia. Anoop has long been fascinated with the characters, creatures and motifs of mythology and folklore, which often serve as deep wells of inspiration, drawn up to reflect upon, or juxtapose against, contemporary society. Anoop creates socially and ecologically conscious narratives, interwoven with imagery borrowed from local ecology and nature. Anoop’s writing is usually a synthesis of genres, bringing together fairy tale, horror, sci-fi and comedy, rooted in themes of identity, injustice, family and trauma.
Rosa Torr
Rosa Torr is a Norwich-based interdisciplinary writer and producer.
Her theatre work resonates with the peculiar experience of being human, exploring relationships and identity within the context of a chaotic socio-political landscape. Her plays have explored subjects such as alcoholism, abortion and gender identity- mostly with compassion, and always with humour.
Credits include: BBC, VAULT Festival, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Soho Theatre, National Centre for Writing, TARA Arts, Battersea Arts Centre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Directors Cut Theatre, Smock Alley Theatre, Waterstones.
Rosa gained an MA Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths College at First Class Honours with distinction. She teaches playwriting workshops for various arts organisations and in schools.
She is currently Associate Producer of Collusion, and Producer/Dramaturg with punk theatre troupe Dakota Collective who are shortlisted for Edinburgh Untapped Award 2024.
Esohe Uwadiae
Esohe Uwadiae is a writer and visual artist. Her work for theatre includes the 5-star SHE IS A PLACE CALLED HOME (VAULT Festival), SISTER, SISTER (The Pleasance Islington), A LESSON IN SHRINKING (Almeida Theatre) and DAISIES TOO (Duke of York’s Theatre). In 2023, her play POTS and PANS and PRAYERS was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting and the Alfred Fagon Award. She has been part of programmes with the Royal Court Theatre, Almeida Theatre and the Old Vic Theatre.
What is the HighTide Writers Group?
- The group meets once a month.
- These gatherings are facilitated by Tim & Juliet and specifically tailored towards the group’s needs and interests.
- Through supportive group discussion, sharing and feedback, the group develops your knowledge and understanding of playwriting, as well as your own unique voice.
- Over the course of 12 months you’re be supported to write a draft of a new play.
- In addition, each selected playwright:
- receives £750 as a bursary to support your time during the 12-month group. (We also pay for any travel expenses you might incur for in-person classes and events).
- is linked up with a professional playwright mentor (selected by you and HighTide Artistic Director, Clare Slater) for a couple of focussed conversations about your writing and your career (previous mentors have included Mike Bartlett, Nina Raine, Hannah Khalil, Sabrina Mahfouz and Lucy Kirkwood).
- is introduced to other producing theatres in the East of England
- receives research and development time, with actors and a director, of your new script
- benefits from a script-in-hand, professional presentation of an extract of your new piece, at HighTide Rising, our festival of new plays.
Consideration for this group is via a script submission process. The submission window for 2025 will be announced later this year. Make sure you’re signed-up to our Playwrights East mailing list to hear about future opportunities. Email [email protected] to sign -up.
HighTide’s Writer Development work is generously supported by The Foyle Foundation.
HighTide Writers Group is supported by The Noel Coward Foundation
