120 plays and 35 years later, Theatre West is celebrating its coral anniversary with a brand new project! In a tough new writing landscape, but with our new BOV Associate Company residency, we want the women in our region to get writing over the next 18 months. Our aim is to mark 2026, doing what we do best, with a season of stonking new work.

We've 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 and let us know how the picture inspired the script.

A great response

We received nearly 70 fabulous scripts from women around the region and after much reading and deliberation, we have chosen eight writers to go forward to the next stage of the project - to work with a dramaturg to develop an hour-long play. Huge congratulations - we are so excited about working with them!

The eight selected writers

  Hannah Ali Khan - Sparks
  Sharon Clark - Raising of the Soho Dead
  Jenny Davis - Shed
  Madeleine Farnhill - Una
  Clare Reddaway - Storm
  Janet Taylor - Frozen Peas
  Rina Vergano - Planet Gemini
  Katie Walker-Cook - Hello

In December we'll choose three of these for further development, with the aim of producing them in autumn 2026.

Just pipped to the post

The writers below were all long-listed

  Lucy Bell - The Snow Leopard
  Micha Colombo - Steam
  Constance Fleuriot - Starlight Hill/Sisters
  Sam Holland-Bunyan - Diva
  Ally Kessler - Confessions
  Helen Liston - Feathers
  Jo Mason - I am Rudi!
  Hannah Mulder - Cantilever