Rosie Race has been selected from over 100 South-West playwrights to write an original play for the Northcott stage.
Over 100 South-West writers submitted their plays to our first ever open script submission window in summer 2024. 18 of the most exciting playwrights (pictured) were selected for a range of bespoke development opportunities, including residencies, skills courses, and rehearsed readings.
Meanwhile, a shortlist of five playwrights were invited to pitch for a commission to write a new play to be performed on the Northcott stage in summer 2026.
Sam Parker, our Artist Development Producer, said: “Once we decided to launch an annual script submission window, it felt important to set the precedent that there is absolutely a pathway from unsolicited submissions to our stage, if we felt the writer was a good fit. What was so exciting about the plays sent to us was that there were clearly several South-West writers creating work at an exceptional level. So much so that we drew up a process in which each of them could pitch for a main-stage commission.”
We are excited to announce the four shortlisted writers, and the recipient of the commission, today; the shortlisted writers are SJ Clark, Natalie McGrath, Jon Nash, and Mich Sanderson, while the commission has been awarded to Rosie Race.
“Taking just one writer forward was painstaking,” adds Parker, “But ultimately Rosie’s visual clarity, formal inventiveness and understanding of our audiences set her pitch apart.”
Photo by Ralph Whitehead
“I feel incredibly lucky to have been chosen for this opportunity — my first commission through to full production.” says Race, “Working in the arts is so difficult right now for everyone and it feels almost impossible to move into the midscale, or sometimes even to keep going at all. So, for me this is not only an incredibly exciting journey to be embarking upon, but also a transformative one. Exeter Northcott are championing my voice and artistic vision as a writer, and encouraging me to be myself with genuine care and curiosity.”
While the title of the commissioned play will be revealed soon, Race has confirmed that it will have a strong connection to the South West. She stated: “I set out wanting to find a story that ignited something in me, as well as being rooted in South-West history and landscape, whilst being surprising and meaningful for audiences.”
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find out moreMeet the Writers
ROSIE RACE
Rosie is a playwright, actor, and theatre maker trained at RADA. She is a Soho Writers Lab alumni, where her play Filthy Animal was shortlisted for the Tony Craze Award 2024. Her first full-length play Us Against the World opened at Theatre Royal Plymouth last year to sold-out audiences and she is a commissioned writer by Middle Child and was a 2024 mentored writer with Paines Plough. She is associate artist with Theatre Royal Plymouth and Documental Theatre, and is Associate Lecturer at University of Plymouth where she teaches Acting and Physical Performance. Rosie is represented by Berlin Associates.
SJ CLARK
Sharon is a writer for stage, TV and film, a dramaturg and creative director of immersive company Raucous. Her plays have won a Bruntwood Judge’s Prize and have been shortlisted for the Yale Drama Prize and the Papatango Prize. She is the dramaturg on Akram Khan’s production, Jungle Book Reimagined. In 2023 she was a participant on the New Voices scheme for Channel 4 and is in development on a TV series. She is currently writing the Christmas show for Tobacco Factory Theatres and is co-creator of The Whale, a live theatre experience with creative captioning sited in an immersive gallery space.
NATALIE MCGRATH
Natalie McGrath is a Devon-based writer/dramaturg for dance company Shaper/Caper’s award-winning Small Town Boys, part of Made in Scotland Showcase at Edinburgh Fringe 2025. Plays include; Cusp, development supported by Playwrights’ Studio Scotland; The Beat of Our Hearts, produced by Exeter Northcott in 2022; We’ll Meet In Moscow, Traverse Theatre; The Cause & Oxygen, Dreadnought South West Regional Touring; Rift, Brewhouse Theatre; Coasting & Wild Doves, Bristol Old Vic; Scottish Kiss, Paines Plough; Metal Remains, Theatre West Bristol. Other writing; Honeycomb, Out & About Queering the Museum at RAMM, “Hey, Joan” Queer Life, Queer Love 3, Muswell Press Autumn 2025.
JON NASH
Jon is a playwright and theatre director based in the South West. He is currently a mentored writer in Year Three of Paines Plough theatre company’s Tour the Writer Programme, developing a new play set in Devon and is touring his one-person show Is Anybody There?. He has written plays for Theatre Royal Plymouth, the University of Plymouth, Barbican Theatre, The Box and Haywire Theatre as well as co-created work for community and youth theatre groups across the region. He was the co-founder of Down Stage Write theatre company and often works developing new plays by writers in the region.
MICH SANDERSON
Mich Sanderson is a writer and theatre practitioner from Totnes, currently on commission to the English Touring Theatre and Theatre Royal Plymouth. An alumnus of ETT’s Nationwide Voices and the TRP Lab Company, Mich develops work for both adults and young people, often specialising in community co-creation and verbatim practice. He has devised, toured and performed in work for/at venues across the South West, and his musical work-in-progress Woke Songs was recently supported by the National Theatre Studios. Mich’s work is often focused on documenting and platforming queer existence.
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