Richard Pilbrow (1933–2023) was a West End and Broadway lighting designer. He was also a theatre, film and television producer and a world-renowned theatre consultant. A pioneer of modern stage lighting in Britain, he was retained by Laurence Olivier to be theatre consultant to the National Theatre in London. His lighting has been seen in over three hundred productions in London, New York, Paris, Vienna and Moscow. He was awarded the 2008 Wally Russell Award for Lifetime Achievement in lighting design.

Winsome Pinnock is an award-winning British playwright of Jamaican heritage. Her plays include: Rockets and Blue Lights (Royal Exchange, Manchester, 2020; National Theatre, 2021); One Under (2005) and Water (2000) at the Tricycle Theatre; Mules (Clean Break/Royal Court Theatre Upstairs/Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles and The Magic Theatre, San Francisco, 1996); Talking in Tongues (1991) and A Hero's Welcome (1989; runner-up Susan Smith Blackburn Prize) at the Royal Court Theatre; and Leave Taking (Liverpool Playhouse Theatre/Contact Theatre Manchester/Belgrade Theatre Coventry/Lyric Hammersmith/ National Theatre, 1986).

She has adapted Malorie Blackman's novel Pig Heart Boy for the stage (Unicorn Theatre / Sheffield Theatres / Children's Theatre Partnership, 2025).

The prizes awarded to her work include the Alfred Fagon Award (2018), the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama (2022), the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Special Commendation (1990), the George Devine Award (1991), the Pearson Award for Best New Play (1991), and the Unity Theatre Trust Award (1989).

Author photo by Matt Roberts

Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer, winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature. His plays include Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921).

Evan Placey is a Canadian-British playwright who grew up in Toronto and now lives in London, England.

His plays include: Peter Pan with Vikki Stone (Rose Theatre, Kingston, 2023); Jekyll & Hyde (National Youth Theatre, 2017 West End season); Consensual (National Youth Theatre, 2015 West End season); Girls Like That (Synergy/Unicorn Theatre; first produced and commissioned by Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth and West Yorkshire Playhouse, 2013; winner of the Writers' Guild Award for Best Play for Young Audiences); Mother of Him (Courtyard Theatre; winner of the King’s Cross Award for New Writing, RBC National Playwriting Competition, Canada, and the Samuel French Canadian Play Contest); Banana Boys (Hampstead Theatre); Suicide(s) in Vegas (Canadian tour; Centaur Theatre Award nomination); Scarberia (Forward Theatre Project/York Theatre Royal); How Was It For You? (Unicorn Theatre); Holloway Jones (Synergy Theatre Project/schools tour/Unicorn Theatre; winner of the Brian Way Award 2012 for Best Play for Young People; Writers' Guild Award nomination); WiLd! (tutti frutti/UK tour and USA); and Pronoun (National Theatre Connections festival, 2014).

Work for radio includes Mother of Him (BBC Radio 3/Little Brother Productions).

Evan is a Creative Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Southampton, and also teaches playwriting to young people for various theatres, and also in prisons.

David Planell was born in Madrid in 1967. He studied Cinema and Television at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and has been a scriptwriter for television since 1990. In 1995 he took part in the Royal Court International Summer School where his play Prime Time was given a workshop directed by Roxana Silbert. Bazaar was his first play to be produced. It was the winner of the Comedias Hogar de Teatro prize and premiered in Puerto Santa Maria (Cádiz) in August 1997 followed by a tour throughout Spain. Bazaar had its British premiere as part of the New European Writers' Season at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in November 1997. He also co-translated Rebecca Prichard's Essex Girls as part of Nueva Dramaturgia Británica in December 1987.

Frances Poet is a Glasgow-based writer. Her stage work includes: Still (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 2021); Maggie May (Leeds Playhouse, Leicester Curve & Queen's Theatre Hornchurch co-production, 2020); Fibres (Stellar Quines & Glasgow Citizens Theatre, 2019); Gut (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 2018); Adam (National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre, 2017); Faith Fall (Òran Mór and Bristol’s Tobacco Factory, 2012) and What Put the Blood (Abbey Theatre, 2017). She has also written a number of free adaptations including Strindberg's Dance of Death (Citizens Theatre, 2016) and Molière's The Misanthrope (Òran Mór, 2014).

Her TV and radio work includes River City and The Disappointed, aired on BBC Radio Scotland in 2015. Her short film, Spores, screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival and Bogoshorts Festival, Bogotá, in 2016.

Alicia Pope is a teacher and writer. She has taught GCSE and A-Level English, Drama and Theatre Studies, and currently teaches Drama in Bath.

She is the author of Princess & The Hustler: The GCSE Study Guide (Nick Hern Books, 2024), a guide to Chinonyerem Odimba's play.

Sam Potter trained at Dartington College of Arts, Trinity College Dublin, the NT and the RSC.

As a director she has worked at Hampstead Theatre, the RSC, the NT and Glyndebourne Opera. She was the Literary Manager at Out of Joint from 2011 until 2013 and the Creative Associate at Headlong from 2013 until 2015.

Her debut play, Mucky Kid, which opened at Theatre 503 in 2013, earned her a Most Promising New Playwright Offie nomination and a place on the 2015 Channel 4 Playwrights’ Scheme.

In 2015 she was Papatango's Resident Playwright supported by the BBC Performing Arts Fund and was one of five writers invited to take part in the Tricycle's inaugural New Writers' Programme, NW6.

Other plays include: Hanna (Papatango, 2018); Tuesday play (Daily Plays by Etch, Squint, The Pleasance Theatre); Daniel (New Plays Festival, Tricycle Theatre); and The Same Old Same Old Same (Oxford School of Drama, Soho Theatre).