Writers Lab has now come to the end of its 2025/26 programme. Over the course of 6 sessions, the writers developed original new plays, exploring a wide range of ideas, styles and theatrical forms through weekly sessions, discussion and writing time. Below you can find the writers involved in this year’s LAB, along with some information about the plays they created as part of the programme!

If you would like to contact any of our Writers LAB participants, please contact harriet@20storieshigh.org.uk

Erin Craine

Shutterbug
“The play itself follows Callie as she navigates her father’s death; growing up and
trying to figure out who you are when there’s people or things pulling you in lots of
different directions – working out where you fit in the world and in your family and
what you want from those relationships, particularly when you feel so different from
those around you. It’s set in the Isle of Man, because I like setting things in the Isle of
Man and nothing else ever is, so there’s a very unique aesthetic to the world, which
is quite personal and intimate as well.

I’ve had to reevaluate my own relationship with writing and the people around me in
the last year, and Shutterbug has become a sort of by-product of that – being forced
to grow up but still clinging to childhood in a way. I hope you can find something
similar in it”

Contact Erin: Email – erinrcraine@gmail.com

Sean McLoughlin

My Little Brother Wasn’t Born to be Brainwashed
“My Little Brother Wasn’t Born to be Brainwashed is an exploration into themes of
family, social class, radicalisation and influence, told mainly through the use of video
games and the dangerous effects these can have on young people, particularly
during an age where racism and misinterpreted patriotism is so rife and further
exacerbated through social media and its inescapable accessibility.
Within the piece, you will meet Tommy and Billy Jones, two teenage brothers who
are about to witness the unexpected arrest of their father. While the younger brother,
Tommy, becomes introverted and closed off, using war-based video games as a
means of solace and community, Billy takes on the ‘man of the house’ role,
attempting to keep his brother on the straight and narrow but not without detrimental
tribulations”

Contact Sean:

Evan Byrne

Prospects
“I typically make work with young people with protected characteristics that focuses
on collaboration, lived experience and peer investigation. I love working with young
people and people with unique perspectives because it just offers so much space for
innovation and new ideas.

The play I’ve been working on during Writers Lab called Prospects. It follows Ben
and Danny in the weeks immediately following their GCSE results day, looking at
how the pressures of being a young adult can alter their relationship and their
prospects for adulthood. It’s been really fun getting to know these two characters and
delving into each of their stories and doing some personal investigation as well as
practical research”

Contact Evan:

Email – evan@tiptraytheatre.com

Layla’s Story
“In my writing, my goal is to discuss both things I’m passionate about and topics that young people can relate to. For example, I almost always discuss women, their lives,
the nuances of what is to be a woman who aches for agency, but in a world that
pushes us down. Moreover, as a South Asian woman and someone in the LGBTQ+
community, I am intrigued by discussions about religion, colonialism, culture and the
complex relationship this has with individuality and modern changes. All things that
my character, Layla, must encounter. Layla, who on the surface is a headstrong,
confident and outspoken young girl, is constantly undermined simply for being a
woman. And so, after her friend Ruby is a victim of a racist attack, she tries to prove
herself by competing in a boxing match against the perpetrators. Challenging what it
means to be not just a woman but a Muslim woman, hiding her actions with the help
of her mum from her dad due to the scrutiny she would get. Overall, Layla is a girl
begging to be listened to, but this is a generational want; she is the first person to try
to change who she is, and it is not easy, but like all young people, she deserves
better.”

Contact Ayesha:

Rowan Pacey

Simmo’s Story
“One of my continuous passions is something as trivial as gossip, and gossip as an
act of feminism! I am a firm believer that gossiping is and can be the key to forming a
real connection with someone… if men just gossiped and shared more there would
be a lot less problems in the world. That ties nicely on to my protagonist,
Simmo, who is a 16 year old boy from Lancaster, living a sheltered life with his close
and complex family. He lives with his dad, his brother Johnno moved away, his nan
lives close by, and his best friend Charlie lives down the road.
As Simmo is witnessing the breakdown of his family due to unprocessed grief and
lack of communication, he discovers that Charlie has kissed another boy.
His best friend is keeping something from him at a time when he craves closeness
and stability, fearing rejection and abandonment. That sends Simmo spiraling.”

Contact Rowan:

Email –  rowanpacey@gmail.com

Since completing YEP Writers in 2024, I have found that I would like to further my creativity with writing. Learn new techniques, or ways of thinking as a way to ensure that I don’t fall flat with playwriting. I am excited to be a part of the WRITERS LAB as I know this is the best place for me to learn and hone these new skills, as well as creating new work that hopefully inspires audiences to create.

Sunny Side Up
“I’m really excited to be sharing an excerpt of my play, Sunny Side Up.
JOE’s dad, DARREN has just been released from prison and has moved into the
campervan in the garden of his old house. JOE’s in a PRU stuck in the shadow of an

identity that feels prescribed. SUNNY is forced to mask his real self to stay safe. A
complicated friendship forms between JOE and SUNNY.
Sunny Side Up explores identity, perceptions and relationships. It ultimately
questions what it means to get to know your parent and your child after years of
assumptions and fragmented memories. Will their real selves hold up to what the
other person expects and needs? The topics and themes of the play are really important to me to represent the entrapment and cyclical nature of the criminal justice system. The way it can often feel it sets people up to fail, with recall and the prescribed labelling of people who’ve been in prison with an in-erasable ex in front of their name despite, their served time for the crime they committed. I wanted to represent the relationship between having a parent in prison and being sent to a Pupil Referral Unit. Most of all I wanted to depict joy and trying. This dad and son are two souls that despite their differences, hurt and history are trying to meet one another as much as they can where they are now.”

Contact Martha:

Eleanor’s World
“My play is called ‘Eleanor’s World.’ Eleanor Mckenna is a 19 year old girl who has
never been able to take off her rose tinted glasses. She’s very nostalgic of her
childhood years despite those years also being some of her worst. Bullied and was
an outcast in primary. To this day she only has one friend of a similar age. Her father,
Jonathan, mysteriously left when she was four which could’ve been a catalyst for
future events up until present. So now, despite forgetting about her own horrible
past, she works as a child minder wanting to help many kids get through a good
childhood. She does this in many ways such as playing call of duty black ops with
them. No. Just kidding.
I wanted to write this because there are a lot of similarities between me and the
character. One of the scenes is about Eleanor and her best friend Laura. The
conversation they have is how I talk to my own best friend. We have a similar
personality of both characters at the same time and if that’s not proof that autism is a
spectrum then I don’t know what to tell you. What’s that phrase, ‘proof is in the
pudding,?’ Well, where is the dessert menu? Nah, In all seriousness, I wanted to
write this because it was fun. It’s been four years since I last wrote a script and script
writing was how I got into writing in the first place so to be frank, this is surreal.”

Contact Jaqson: