- Three writers named to join Winsome Pinnock as part of Bristol Old Vic’s Five Year Commitment residency
- Inaugural Early Career Writers Group announced, led by Ross Willis
- Alongside both initiatives, BOV Literary Department continues year-round to commission and develop new work and build connections with the artists across the South West region
L to R: Winsome Pinnock, Hannah Khalil, Muneera Pilgrim, Sam Parker
Bristol Old Vic’s re-energised Literary Department today announced three writers who will be joining Winsome Pinnock as part of the theatre’s Five Year Commitment residency – a programme of support for UK writing talent at all stages of their careers. The Five Year Commitment is at the heart of Nancy Medina’s strategy to develop new British writing at Bristol Old Vic.
Writers from across the UK submitted work to Bristol Old Vic’s open call out and, following a selection process, Hannah Khalil, Sam Parker and Muneera Pilgrim have been invited to join award-winning playwright Winsome Pinnock in the scheme. The writers will be on attachment to Bristol Old Vic until January 2030.
This cohort of writers represents Bristol Old Vic’s desire to support homegrown talent based in and from the South West region, alongside nurturing inspiring voices from across the country, with the intention of sharing their work with audiences in Bristol.
The Five Year Commitment gives four writers at different stages of their careers the time and space to build their craft through the commissioning, development and presentation of new work. In addition, the theatre will use its programme resources over those five years to support the space between those commissions; connecting them with each other and ensuring they feel embedded and at home at Bristol Old Vic. It is supported in its first year through the generous support of the Genesis Foundation Prize.
Hannah Khalil was the 2022 Resident Writer at Shakespeare’s Globe and her work there includes Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights, Henry VIII and The Fir Tree (2021 and 2022). Hannah’s other stage plays include My English Persian Kitchen which ran at the Traverse as part of Edinburgh Festival 2024 and then transferred to Soho Theatre, London to sold out audiences and critical acclaim. Further work includes A Museum in Baghdad (Royal Shakespeare Company) which marked the first play by a woman of Arab heritage on a main stage at the RSC, Interference (National Theatre of Scotland) and the critically acclaimed Scenes from 68* Years – shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award (Arcola Theatre, London, 2016). Scenes has also been mounted in San Francisco, New York, France and in Tunisia in a British Council supported production called Trouf. Hannah held the Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University and the Samuel Beckett Creative Fellowship. She is an Honorary Fellow of Birkbeck University (2024/5) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Hannah says: “I am beside myself with excitement to begin this residency. To have the opportunity to spend more time in Bristol is just wonderful. It is a city I love so well and was my first base in the UK when I came back from the Middle East; my local relatives are made up too! Even more special is the chance to build a relationship with Bristol Old Vic and the team and audience there. I am making the theatre my creative home for the next five years, a safe place to explore and develop my practice as a writer, and hopefully write some thought-provoking new plays.”
Sam Parker is a playwright born in Torbay, Devon. He was a member of the Royal Court Introduction to Playwriting programme in 2016 and his debut short film, Musculinity, was produced by Channel 4 Random Acts. For the Narwhal Ensemble, Sam co-wrote Whey Down South and 2021: A Cornish Space Odyssey, both of which toured the South West. As Writer-in-the-Room, Sam has co-created Quizzy Rascals: An Evening with the Barbican Legends and Ernesettlers for Theatre Royal Plymouth. He was part of The North Wall’s 2023 Catalyst programme and was on attachment at Oxford Playhouse in 2024. Sam is part of the incoming BBC Writersroom Voices cohort for 2025. Outside of writing, Sam has worked extensively across a range of community and education settings, including in universities, schools and all three of Devon’s prisons. He was the Pathways Producer for Doorstep Arts CIC and co-led Doorstep Youth Theatre from 2021 to 2025. Sam has worked as a script reader and dramaturg for a range of theatres and prizes, including Papatango, The Bruntwood Prize and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and he was the co-founder of Down Stage Write CIC. Sam is currently the Artist Development Producer at Exeter Northcott and Barnfield Theatres.
Sam says: “I was born and raised in the South West and have spent all my working life here. To have a theatre from the part of the world I grew up in commit to me and my writing in this way feels special. I’m excited to see how the next five years pan out collaborating with Bristol Old Vic alongside Winsome, Hannah and Muneera. I can’t wait to get to work!”
Muneera Pilgrim is a Poet, Cultural Producer, Writer and Broadcaster. She spoken for TEDx and WOW Festival, with her work garnering international acclaim. At heart, Muneera is a storyteller, concerned with telling stories to disrupt mainstream narratives of non-centred people globally and to beautify truths that are rarely told. Muneera regularly contributes to Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2; she is an alumni Associate Artist with the English Touring Theatre and she is an in-house poet and thinker with In Between Time, where she developed The Joy Project. Muneera has written for The Guardian, Amaliah, Huffington Post, The Independent, Al Jazeera, Black Ballard and various other digital and print platforms. She has been featured across the BBC network, as well as on Sky News, Sky Arts, Al Jazeera, and various other television channels. In 2015 a documentary was commissioned and screened about her former group Poetic Pilgrimage called Hip Hop Hijabis. Rooted in spirituality she uses communication and art for edification, enrichment and change. Her debut poetry collection That Day She’ll Proclaim Her Chronicles was released in November 2021 through Burning Eye Books.
Muneera says: “Putting respectability and niceties aside, I am hella gassed for this opportunity! The potential of having a home, developing my writing, and the ability to represent the various worlds and people around me with dignity, delights me. It is equally delightful that Nancy, Ben, and BOV believe in my voice and stories enough to invest in me over such a long period of time. For this opportunity to be hosted in Bristol, the city that I am from, makes this an even prouder moment for me. I can’t wait to see what myself and my fellow cohort do from here.”
They join Winsome Pinnock, an award-winning writer for stage, radio, film and television, described by The Guardian as “the godmother of black British playwrights”. Her work has been produced on the British stage and internationally since 1985. Winsome was the first black British female writer to have a play produced by the National Theatre. Her phenomenal body of work includes Leave Taking (Bush Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse, National Theatre), Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange & BBC Radio 3), Mules (Royal Court and internationally) and many more.
Winsome says: “When the landscape for new writing is particularly complex, it is an honour to be joined by three more writers on this ground-breaking initiative. Bristol Old Vic’s commitment to investing in writers over a five-year period is both inspiring and necessary, recognising that the creation of new plays requires time, trust, and nurturance. I look forward to having the space to explore and develop my work within such a supportive community and to contribute to the theatre’s legacy of innovation and storytelling, and I cannot wait to work with the resonant and beautiful voices of Hannah, Sam and Muneera.”
Nancy Medina, Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic says:
“Throughout the Autumn of last year we ran an open process to discover the writers that would join Winsome within the Five Year Commitment. This process was deeply inspiring; we could have recruited this residency several times over with extraordinary writing talent from across the country. At the end of that process however, it felt like our choice was clear; we were so excited about the opportunity of collaborating with Hannah, Sam and Muneera and all the thrilling possibilities of how they and Winsome might collaborate and exchange with us and each other over the next five years.
We originally intended to appoint three writers but we have made space for four simply because we believe these incredible writers – all at very different stages of their careers – represent the core of what we would like to achieve with this initiative. We want to support these writers to be brave; we want to nurture explosive talent from the South West in tandem with incomparable voices from across the country; we want to amplify stories and perspectives that we don’t hear enough of; and we want to create work with these writers that will resonate here at home, across the UK and around the globe. Let’s get started!”
John Studzinski, Founder & Chairman of the Genesis Foundation says:
“We were delighted to reward Nancy with the Genesis Foundation Prize in 2024. We were impressed with her ambitious plans for the Five-Year Commitment at Bristol Old Vic and hope this programme will show how vital it is, for the creative industries to hold space for writers, to nurture them and invest in their long-term literary development. We are delighted that the Genesis Foundation Prize recognized Nancy’s leadership and mentoring skills, and wish her the best with this new programme.”
