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Olivia Hannah is a Newcastle-based scriptwriter. She wrote her first full-length play, ‘Braids’, as a member of the Royal Court Writers’ Group (North) in 2018. ‘Braids’ went on to be long-listed for the 2018 Alfred Fagon Award and selected by Live Theatre in Newcastle, where Olivia is also an Associate Artist. ‘Braids’ was then scheduled for performance in April 2020, cancelled due to Covid-19. It was subsequently selected for BBC Radio 4’s Lights Up! festival in March 2021. In 2019, her short play ‘Michelle’ was developed and performed as part of Workie Ticket Theatre Company’s ‘Women Warriors project’, working with female veterans to share their experiences. She is a recipient of a 2019 Slate R&D commission from Eclipse, to develop an interactive theatre piece around Northern Soul and Black diaspora music in Newcastle in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2019, Olivia received an Early Development award from the BFI to write a treatment for a ‘Braids’ screenplay and is currently working with producers to develop the feature. Most recently, Olivia took part in the 2020 BBC Northern Voices scheme, as part of which she wrote a TV pilot for ‘Influence’, an anthology series about the impact of social media on offline life. And in August 2020, her second play ‘Shit Life Crisis’ was long-listed for the Paines Plough Women’s Prize for Playwriting. Tamsin Rees (they/them) is a writer based in the North East of England. They are a member of the Orange Tree Writer’s Collective 21/22, BBC North East Voices 21, and was a member of the Royal Court Writers Group North. Tamsin is currently completely an AHRC funded PhD in Playwriting at Newcastle University. They write stories rooted in the North East that are character driven and challenge class, sexuality, and power.
