Fifty years ago, Stage One was founded on a simple conviction: that the producers who build British theatre deserve the same investment as the work they champion. Half a century on, that conviction has not changed. The people have.
This year’s nine bursary recipients, each receiving up to £20,000 alongside mentoring and professional development, arrive from across the industry and beyond it. The nine recipients are Aixa Amarante Naranjo, Patrick Bone, Millie Brierley, Sam Edmunds, Mina Moniri, Zoe Novello, Suher Sofi, Kate Taylor and Lucy Wood. One holds a PhD in molecular biophysics from Oxford. One is a British Somali founder whose work has been seen at the National Theatre, Soho Theatre and Bristol Old Vic.
What they share is not a background or a route in. It is a refusal to wait to be invited in.
Meet them at stageone.org.uk.
Stage One’s patrons are Sir Cameron Mackintosh and Dame Judi Dench.
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