John Webber is an actor and playwright.

As an actor he has worked at the National Theatre and in regional theatres around the UK. Television credits include EastEnders, Doctor Foster, A Touch of Frost and Coronation Street.

His plays include Spiderfly (Theatre503, London, 2019) and REAP (long-listed for the Bruntwood and Papatango Prizes, short-listed for BBC Writersroom and selected for the Arcola Theatre's PlayWROUGHT festival).

Born in c.1580, John Webster came from an evidently prosperous middle-class London family, his father a coachbuilder and wagonmaker with premises in Smithfield, just north-west of the City. The business was continued by John’s brother Edward, and perhaps helped to subsidise Webster’s playwriting career – for, by contrast with most professional dramatists, his output was scarcely sufficient to provide an adequate living. His law studies in the Middle Temple evidently incomplete, he is first heard of in the theatre from payments made to Dekker, Middleton and himself by the manager Philip Henslowe in 1602, and two years later he was entrusted with the task of fleshing out Marston’s The Malcontent, a play written for a children’s company, to meet the needs of the adult players. A number of satirical ‘citizen comedies’ of London life, written in collaboration, followed – then, around 1610, came his first known independent work, The Devil’s Law Case, written in the then-fashionable form of a tragi-comedy. Two or three years later, the two great tragedies which have sustained his reputation in the theatre followed in quick succession: but whereas The White Devil received its first performance at the Red Bull, an open-air theatre of low repute, The Duchess of Malfi was performed by Shakespeare’s old company, the King’s Men, at their prestigious indoor house, the Blackfriars – and no doubt also at the second Globe, where the company still played in the summer months. Webster’s later dramatic output was largely collaborative, with civic celebrations and occasional verse completing a modest canon. Beyond these bare facts we know little of his life – or even the exact date of his death, though his fellow playwright Thomas Heywood seems to refer to him as dead by 1634.

Max Webster is a theatre director, specialising in new work, opera and live music events.

He has directed major productions in London at The Old Vic, The Globe Theatre and English National Opera, as well as across Europe, North America and Asia. He is currently an Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse.

Fay Weldon (1931–2023) was an English author, essayist and playwright. Her novels include The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983). Her adaptation of Flaubert's Madame Bovary, subtitled Breakfast with Emma, was staged by Shared Experience in 2003.

Michael Weller is the author of Moonchildren, Loose Ends, Spoils of War, amongst others. He has also written screenplays, including Hair and Ragtime (both directed by Milos Forman), and has been nominated for an Academy Award. 

Tom Wells is a playwright whose work includes: Big Big Sky (Hampstead Theatre, 2021); Stuff (National Theatre Connections Festival, 2019); Drip, with music composed by Matthew Robins (Boundless Theatre, 2017/8); Broken Biscuits (Live Theatre/Paines Plough UK tour, 2016); Folk (Birmingham Rep & tour, 2016); Jumpers for Goalposts (Watford Palace Theatre, 2013); The Kitchen Sink (Bush Theatre, 2011) and Me, As A Penguin (Arcola Theatre, 2010).

Author photo by Richard Mildenhall

Louise Welsh is an author whose novels include The Cutting Room, Tamburlaine Must Die, The Bullet Trick and Naming the Bones.

Her plays in include Panic Patterns (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, 2010), Memory Cells (The Arches, Glasgow, 2009) and The Importance of Being Alfred (Oran Mor, Glasgow, 2005).

Tom Wentworth is a playwright, broadcaster and journalist. His work for theatre includes: Little Bits of Ruined Beauty (Pentabus, 2022); Burke and Hare (Watermill/Jermyn Street); Bully (recipient of an MGCFutures Bursary and performed at Wales Millennium Centre); Bee Happy (Old Red Lion) and Windy Old Fossils (Pentabus).