Happy New Year! New year, new plays…

As we launch into 2017 all guns blazing, we’re delighted to unveil the three brilliant PlayBox playwrights who will join our ranks this year. PlayBox is a writer-on-attachment programme offering bespoke residencies to three North West playwrights to write a new play with support from Box of Tricks. Over the course of a nine-month attachment, each playwright will receive a seed commission to write a new play with dramaturgical support from the company and workshop development with actors.

Meet the PlayBox playwrights for 2017…

Furquan Akhtar
After developing his editorial skills at Coronation Street and Hollyoaks, Furquan took the leap to pursue his own writing.  He is the winner of the BBC’s prestigious Alfred Bradley Bursary Award (2013-14) as well as a Broadcast “Hot Shot” (2014) and a Guardian Newspaper “One to Watch” (2012). Furquan is also part of Channel 4’s “Commissioning Network” (2016-17).
Furquan has written an episode for series 5 of CBBC’s The Dumping Ground. He has also written two episodes for series four of CBBC’s hit teen drama Wolfblood. Furquan is developing a comedy drama with Hat Trick Productions a sitcom for Retort and a drama for Lime Pictures. Furquan has a passion for Radio Drama and has written two well received afternoon plays; Shamed and most recently Brotherhood.

Patrick Hughes
Patrick is a playwright, performer and poet from the North West of England. After graduating from The Liverpool Everyman’s Young Writers Programme his first play Northern Flight was produced and staged as part of Flux Festival 2014. In 2015 Patrick was commissioned by Northumberland Theatre Company to write the play Undercover, which toured a number of venues across the North of England. Later that year his second play Aquarium was long listed for the Bruntwood Prize. In 2016, Patrick completed a Masters of Arts in scriptwriting at The University of East Anglia under the tutelage of playwrights Steve Waters and Timberlake Wertenbaker. When he is not writing he runs scriptwriting classes in Liverpool and is the founder of the city’s biggest poetry night A Lovely Word.

James Harker
James is an award-winning young playwright from Manchester. His first full-length play (Gary: A Love Story) opened in 2015 to five star reviews, and went on to win Equity’s ‘Vicky Allen Award’ for ‘Best Play, 2015.’ He is currently under commission with the Dukes Theatre, Lancaster to produce Port Stories: a series of audio dramas focused on the legacy of the 18th century Lancaster slave trade. His second play, Borderland, will be touring the North West in 2017. He is very excited to be working with Box of Tricks as part of the PlayBox scheme.