About London Playwrights

About us

London Playwrights started life as a blog in 2013, with the aim of bringing together the latest opportunities, best resources, and good advice in one place to help build and support a community of emerging playwrights.

About us Meet the team

Our work

• The latest opportunities, best resources, and good advice in one place.
• Workshops, development opportunities, and dramaturgy.
• A supportive community for emerging playwrights.

About us

We believe playwriting is for absolutely everyone!

In 2016, we expanded our work to become a nonprofit organisation offering workshops, development opportunities, and dramaturgy.

We believe playwriting is for absolutely everyone! We’re always striving to be more accessible and to help create a level playing field for a diverse range of writers. We welcome anyone who wants to join our community, whether you’re completely new to writing, or just want to expand your network in a supportive environment, we’re here for you!

From workshops, to courses, to blog posts from emerging writers, to opportunities and mentoring, we hope you find our work inspiring and instrumental in developing your craft as a playwright!

The work of London Playwrights’ Workshop is made possible entirely by the kind support from our members. If you’d like to join us and help us grow, find out more here!

Meet the team

The people behind London Playwrights.

Our work relies on a team of dynamic, creative, and friendly freelancers who deliver our workshops, offer dramaturgical services, and create online resources.

Dramaturg & Cofounder

Kimberley Andrews

Kimberley is a playwright and dramaturg. As a playwright, she has worked with the Birmingham Rep, Manchester Royal Exchange, Wolverhampton University, All the Rage Theatre, Luton Culture, and RADA. She has also written and produced comedy sketch shows on the London Fringe. As a dramaturg, she has worked on short films for BBC ideas, tutored playwriting students at RADA and York University, and works as a freelance script consultant. She delivers a wide range of workshops for London Playwrights, offers dramaturgical services, and creates and runs development and mentoring programmes. Kimberley has worked with hundreds of writers over the past decades and enjoys supporting writers in shaping their stories, finding their unique voices, and developing their playwriting craft.

Script Consultant and Workshop Leader

Emily Garside

Emily Garside is a playwright, dramaturg and academic and by day Arts Marketeer! A specialist in musical theatre from an academic point of view, her PhD looked at the history of musical theatre and she has since worked on history and analysis of musicals for various publications. Emily is also a dramaturg who has worked on a variety of projects both plays and musical theatre. As Chair of the board for Taking Flight Theatre Emily also has expertise in accessible/inclusive theatre and integrated BSL/Captioning. A graduate of RADA and University of Nottingham. She has produced work with Clock Tower Theatre, Freerayne Productions, Dirty Protest Theatre and The Other Room. And her play Don’t Send Flowers has toured to Cardiff, Wolverhampton and Manchester. Emily works regularly with The Arena Theatre Wolverhampton and is a writer for the 14/48 theatre festival there. She has taught Theatre at Cardiff Metropolitan University, the University of South Wales and Wolverhampton University.

Script Consultant & Editor

Deane McElree

Deane is a writer of plays, films and prose fiction, and a graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s MA in Writing for Stage and Broadcast Media. He writes scripts for theatre, film, and radio, and generally works in the genres of comedy, drama, horror, and magical realism. He has also been involved in theatre as a director, actor and musician.

Literary Manager

Hayley-Rose

Hayley-Rose is a multidisciplinary professional in theatre: Acting with Cervantes Theatre, Writing with the RSC, Directing at Rose Bruford and running Literary for her own company Incept Collective. She is mainly interested in breaking with tradition and uplifting unheard voices.

Copywriter and Script Reader

Sam Essame

Sam is a writer, script reader, and workshop facilitator who loves magical realism. His script reading work includes reading for Theatre503, London Playwrights’ Blog, and The Space. He was also theatre critic for the London Horror Society and artistic director of Danse Macabre Productions, a horror theatre company. Last year, he completed an MFA at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Script Consultant

Nika Obydinski

In addition to working with writers directly as a script consultant for LPW, Nika is also a reader for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, The Royal Exchange Theatre, The Verity Bargate Award, and the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award. She is a Senior Reader for Theatre503, where she also works with writers in the 1 to 1 Dramaturgy scheme, and has served as Literary Coordinator. She has previously looked after the literary department at the King’s Head Theatre, project managed the Adrian Pagan Award, and been a judge for the Stella Wilkie Award and Durham Drama Festival. Her own work has been performed at the Tristan Bates Theatre, the White Bear, Lost Theatre, and BAC Freshly Scratched, in addition to being a finalist in the BBC’s Script Room Drama. She holds an MA in Text and Performance from RADA and Birkbeck College, and a BA in Drama from UC Irvine. She sounds super busy, but don’t worry, she still travels and climbs up mountains a lot.

Workshop Facilitator and Script Reader

Selwin Hulme-Teague

Selwin is a student at the University of Warwick. Outside of his studies he makes theatre, specialising in new writing or devised work that voices complicated, misunderstood stories, usually through a political, feminist, or queer optic. He has worked as a director and writer with Barbican Theatre Plymouth, Pound of Flesh, nettle theatre and White Noise Theatre, of which he is cofounder and co artistic director. Whilst at university, he has staged work at the Warwick Arts Centre and Edinburgh Fringe festival and his play Potatoes was selected for the National Student Drama Festival in 2020. Currently, he is developing a new digital show with White Noise Theatre about artificial intelligence.

Volunteers & Readers

Volunteers & Readers.

Our work also relies on dedicated volunteers who help with the day to day running of the organisation and script reading duties!

Cofounder and Director

Kimberley Andrews

After cofounding London Playwrights with A. C. Smith back in 2013, Kimberley volunteers her time to ensure the organisation runs smoothly.

Cofounder

A. C. Smith

A. C. Smith (Alli to friends!) is a scriptwriter and songwriter. She has won awards from the RSC and Soho Theatre, and had work performed at venues including Soho Theatre, RADA, Southwark Playhouse, Theatre503, HighTide Festival, Rose Playhouse Bankside, Pleasance Theatre, The Space, and the Tristan Bates Theatre and was a member of the Bush Theatre’s 2016 Emerging Writers Group. She has worked at RADA as a Playwriting Tutor and as Head of Academic Studies, and as a Development Executive at First Born Films, nurturing new feature film projects. As a lyricist and bookwriter for musical theatre, A. C. was shortlisted for the Kevin Spacey Artists of Choice Awards and has had her songs (written with Bella Barlow) performed at the Globe Theatre and on JemmThree Radio. She and Kimberley founded London Playwrights’ Blog and London Playwrights’ Workshop as resources to help writers bridge the gap between their artistic lives and practical goals.

Script Reader

Dan Millen

Dan is a screen and theatre writer based in south-west London. When he’s not putting his own pen to paper, he enjoys the process of reading and developing other writers’ projects and has provided freelance script coverage since 2020. He has an MA in Screenwriting, cowrote and directed short film Ransack (2024), and loves to read, travel and explore London.

Script Reader

Hazel Fattorusso

Hazel is a playwright from the East of England. Hazel loves to write strong, complex female characters, using comedy to address serious issues around femininity, sisterhood and motherhood. Hazel is passionate about the use of theatre to address societal issues and its power to give a voice to those often unheard.

Script Reader

Rachael Walsh

Rachael Walsh is a director and dramaturg and a graduate of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School Drama Directing MA. She works as a dramaturg with writers and theatre makers to support them to tell the stories they want to tell.

Script Reader

Alistair Maxwell

Alistair is a graduate from Queen Margaret University’s Drama and Performance course. He has reviewed theatre for The List; Youth Theatre Arts Scotland; the Wee Review; as well as arts festivals in Croatia, Slovenia and Edinburgh. As a playwright he has written for Not So Nice Theatre and Page2Stage. He currently writes and directs short films and sketch comedy with Half/Cut Films.