Nuffield Southampton Theatres and Up In Arms Launch New Writer's Group

Nuffield Southampton Theatres today announces the launch of a new writer's group in partnership with the award-winning South West theatre company Up in Arms led by co-artistic directors Barney Norris and Alice Hamilton, to help writers from the local area develop their skills in writing for performance.

NST and Up in Arms will together deliver a programme of mentoring, masterclasses and script in hand reading from some of the best new writing practitioners, playwrights and facilitators to help local writers grow their ideas as well as find their writing voice. The process will culminate in a public showcase, with the aim of finding at least one writer for NST to move forward with and commission for showcase in their new Studio Theatre.

This partnership has been specifically designed for NST to benefit from Up In Arms' skills and experience of working with new work, making new writing a larger part of their future programming. In return, NST will support Up In Arms in upscaling the company towards producing more mid-scale work which continues NST's commitment to nurturing creative professionals such as Chelsea Walker (Director of A Streetcar Named Desire) and Jasmine Swan (Designer on the upcoming Women in Power).

The writers group will take place over the summer of 2018 with submissions currently being accepted. For more information please visit: nstheatres.co.uk/about-us/news

Director of Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Samuel Hodges said today, 'There is a real need to find and support the next generation of writers, on both a local and national scale. There is clearly a vibrant small-scale scene amongst theatre-makers, devisers and writer-performers, but not the scale of opportunity for playwrights that there once was. We're really excited to be announcing this writers group alongside Up in Arms, one of the most promising new writing companies in the South West, as part of our drive to make our new Studio Theatre a home for new plays.'

Co-Artistic Director of Up in Arms, Barney Norris, said today, 'This programme offers two things to aspiring artists that have only been glimpsed fleetingly in our part of the country for a generation. In the Nuffield under Sam Hodges, it offers a theatre with both the genuine desire and, crucially, the capacity to break new stories about this neck of the woods. In Alice Hamilton, it provides access to a director in the front rank of artists in her generation, whose work on new plays has led to significant international acclaim. What it needs now is hard-working, hungry, passionate people to seize this opportunity and decide what kind of stories the region should be telling over the next ten years - how the New Forest is going to react to this changing world we're in. We can't wait to hear from you.'

Up in Arms is an award-winning touring theatre company from the South West of England. The company was founded in 2008 by Alice Hamilton and Barney Norris, who began working together as teenagers in their local youth theatre. Their work is built around a regular ensemble of like-minded theatre-makers, and plays are grown out of workshops and conversations with local communities. Through an active Participation Programme, the company works with hundreds of people year, encouraging them to engage creatively with their lives through making theatre. In addition, Norris' new play Nightfall has just opened at the Bridge Theatre. https://www.upinarms.org.uk/

Nuffield Southampton Theatres is one of the UK's leading professional theatre companies. The company is led by Samuel Hodges, supported by a team of associates: directors Blanche McIntyre, Natalie Abrahami and Michael Longhurst, designer Tom Scutt, playwright Adam Brace, choreographer Drew McOnie and poet Inua Ellams. NST develops and produces work with some of the UK's most exciting and dynamic regional theatres. In 2016/17 290,000 people saw an NST production across all 9 regions of the UK. NST won Best Director UK Theatre Awards 2014 (The Seagull), 'Regional Theatre of the Year' at The Stage Awards 2015, Best Design UK Theatre Awards 2015 (The Hudsucker Proxy), and the 2017 Renee Stepham UK Theatre Award for Best Presentation of Touring Theatre (Fantastic Mr Fox).