Welcome to the OT Writers’ Collective.
Welcome to the OT Writers’ Collective. We are delighted to have been working with this brilliant group of playwrights since 2025.
OT Writers’ Collective 2025
Hassan Abdulrazzak
Hassan Abdulrazzak is of Iraqi origin, born in Prague and living in London. His credits as a playwright include The Special Relationship (Soho Theatre), And Here I Am (Arcola Theatre, international tour), Love, Bombs and Apples (Arcola Theatre, UK tour, Kennedy Center), The Prophet (Gate Theatre), and Baghdad Wedding (Soho Theatre, BBC Radio 3, Belvoir St Theatre). He is the recipient of the George Devine Award, the Meyer-Whitworth Award, and the Pearson Theatre Award, as well as the Arab British Centre Award for Culture. The script of his short film A Night of Gharam won the Unsolicited Scripts Short Film Grant 2022.
Azan Ahmed
Azan Ahmed is an actor, poet, and playwright. His credits as a playwright include Statues (Bush Theatre) as well as Daytime Deewane (Half Moon Theare, UK Tour) which won the 2023 Off-West End award for Best Writing.
Martha Watson Allpress
Martha Watson Allpress is a playwright and screenwriter from the East Midlands. For stage, her credits include Lady Dealer (Bush Theatre, Paines Plough Roundabout), Disco Inferno (National Youth Theatre), Kick (Lyric Hammersmith) and Patricia Gets Ready (Brixton House, National Tour). She was announced as the winner for the 2023 Ambassador Theatre Groups Playwrights Prize for her script, Ask Her If She Still Keeps All Her Kings in the Back Row. As a screenwriter she has work in development with Red Planet Pictures, Various Artists Ltd and LA Productions; with the latter, her first television project will broadcast later this year.
Catherine Dyson
Catherine Dyson’s writing credits include The Luminous, On Track, Thunder Road (RedCape Theatre, UK tour), Peter Pan (Sherman Theatre), Bitcoin Boi (Riverfront Theatre), Believers (South Street Arts Centre), and Transporter (Theatr Iolo, UK and Kolkata tour). Her play The Last Picture was selected as one of the RSC’s 37 Plays and will be produced by York Theatre Royal, English Touring Theatre and An Tobar and Mull Theatre in 2026. Currently on a writing attachment at the National Theatre, she also won second prize in the Arch 468 Hope Playwriting Prize for I Will Still Be Dreaming. In addition, she was shortlisted and specially commended in the Wales Writer in Residence Award, and longlisted for the Funny Women Writing Award. Her audio credits include The Egg Man (BBC Radio 4) and Mansfield Park (Audible).
Lucy Phelps
Lucy Phelps is a translator in association with the BCLT, and actress. As a translator, her credits include The Pulverised (Arcola Theatre), Point of No Return (Avignon Festival, La Colline Théâtre National), State of Vegetation (co-translate with Camila Ymay González, Out of the Wings Festival), The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing (Nour Festival), and the Royal Court Theatre’s International Residency for Emerging Playwrights projects. She is an alumni of the British Centre for Literary Translation Summer School.
Ben Weatherill
Ben Weatherill is a writer from the East Midlands. His writing credits include Frank and Percy (Theatre Royal Windsor, Theatre Royal Bath, The Other Palace – which was nominated for a Sky Arts Award in the Times Breakthrough Artist category). Other credits include Jellyfish (National Theatre, Bush Theatre), As Waters Rise (Almeida Theatre) and Chicken Dust (Finborough Theatre).
Writers’ Collective Alumni
2023-24: Ric Renton, Clarisse Makundul, Lydia Sabatini, Anne Odeke, Kelly Jones, Oli Higginson
2021-22: Gemma Lawrence, Nimmo Ismail, Cassiopeia Berkley-Agyepong, Jade Anouka, Tamsin Daisy Rees
2019: Samuel Bailey, Carmen Nasr, Ross Willis, Zoe Guzy-Sprague, Freddie Machin, Femi Keeling
2016-17: Joe White, Sarah Grochala, Chris Bush, Sonali Bhattacharyya, Christian Graham, Daniel Foxsmith, Eve Leigh
2015-16: Ben Cooper, Chris Adams, Emma Jowett, Ian Bonar, Natalie Mitchell, Paula B Stanic, Philip Correia, Sharon Kanolik and Tim Foley
2014-15: Amman Paul Singh Brar, Afsaneh Gray, Dean Stalham, Jess Brown, Matt Parvin, Nessah Muthy, Somalia Seaton, Sumerah Srivastav and Tristan Bernays
2013-14: Amber Hsu, Amy Neilson Smith, Berri George, Brian Mullin, Claire Urwin, Daniel York, Isley Lynn and Keely Winstone