WriterSlam Comedy Edition Winners!

Last night we returned to Theatre Royal Stratford East for the WriterSlam: Comedy Edition for 2015!

We got to use the theatre’s new studio space for the show, with a great industry turn out supporting some fantastic emerging writing talent, including a judging panel made up of our supporters from ITV, ITV Studios, BBC, Hat Trick and Tiger Aspect.

The ensemble of 8 performers has just 24 hours with director Fraser Ayres, and treated us to impressive performances on all 5 pieces. Performers included Meg Travers, Michael Bunani, Adam Khaliq, and Nneka Okeye (all of whom were previous MonologueSlam UK winners), as well as Chris Ryman, Alexander Theo, Kym Vithana and Paul Raymond – with a special cameo performance from director Fraser Ayres!

The five finalists were; Esosa Uwaifo with Life of a Roadman, Halida Abbaro with Mersey Cumparsita, Lynda Clark with Them Indoors, Ravdeep Mangat with All Around Avi and Rafiq Richard with Black Sheep.

We are very proud to announce the winners of each of the fantastic prizes! With 5 prizes on offer, and 5 finalists, everyone went home with a trophy.

Up and coming screenwriter, Halida Abbaro, was selected as the winner of the Tiger Aspect award. She will receive a paid development commission from Tiger, supported by Head of Comedy Pete Thornton.

Other winners on the night included writer Rafiq Richard, who won the ITV award and will be offered 6 hours mentoring over the next 6 months with Commissioning Editor (Comedy) Saskia Schuster. Ravdeep Mangat was picked by Angela Sinden at Hat Trick, who will be mentoring Ravdeep over a period of 6 months. Lynda Clark won the BBC award, and is excited to have bagged a 15 minute commission for BBC Radio Comedy. And finally, Esosa Uwaifo was chosen by TriForce Productions, who will be mentoring him over the next 6 month and developing his script, Life of a Roadman.

Congratulations to all our finalists (and our shortlisted writers), we can’t wait to see you take the next steps in your writing career!

Keep your eyes peeled on our website for the next WriterSlam UK, planned for Spring 2016!

Oh, and if you’d like to see how the actors celebrated after turning in a stellar performance, check out their ‘celebration through dance’ on Facebook….

This scheme is funded by Creative Skillset’s Skills Investment Funds.