Founded in 1990, 150 plays and 35 years later Theatre West celebrated its coral anniversary in 2025. In a tough new writing landscape, but with our BOV Associate Company residency to buoy us up, we wanted the women in our region to get writing, so we launched our Coralations project. To kick things off we had a look back at our archives and pulled out ten well loved marketing images to get the creative juices flowing.
To see the ten images, please click here
At the tail-end of 2024 we offered the opportunity to choose one of these images as a jumping off point to write a ten minute piece.
We received nearly 70 fabulous scripts from women around the region and after much reading and deliberation, we chose eight writers to go forward to the next stage of the project - to work with a dramaturg to develop an hour-long play.
The eight scripts landed in our inbox in December 2025 and we are delighted to announce that the three scripts we have decided to take forward for further development and production in 2027 (funding gods permitting) are:
Spark - Hannah Ali Khan (dramaturg Samuel Bailey)
The Raising of the Soho Dead - Sharon Clark (dramaturg Bea Roberts)
Ruby - Janet Taylor (dramaturg Matt Grinter)
It's been a very tough decision and we've so enjoyed reading all the scripts. Keep an eye out for the other shortlisted scripts as we're sure they'll have a further life
Shed - Jenny Davis (dramaturg Somebody Jones)
Una - Madeleine Farnhill (dramaturg Lucy Catherine)
Untethered - Clare Reddaway (dramaturg Mike Akers)
The Gurt Dog of Langport - Rina Vergano (dramaturg Emma Callander)
Laid Bare - Katie Walker-Cook (dramaturg David Lane)
We'd like to thank the other reading panel members Nancy Medina, Artistic Director at Bristol Old Vic and Christabel Holmes, Senior Producer at Good Chance for their help in making some difficult choices.
Watch this space for updates!