Ãå±±½ûµØ playwright named Writer-in-Residence for RSC Published on: 23 October 2024 Award-winning playwright Dr Zoe Cooper has been appointed Writer-in-Residence to the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). New ideas Dr Cooper, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing in Ãå±±½ûµØ’s School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics is joined in the role by writer Stewart Pringle. They will lead the New Works team at the and develop their own writing. Their work with the team will include mentoring playwrights, developing new ideas and establishing new ways of supporting writers. Both Zoe and Stewart will take up their new roles in November. Dr Cooper said: “I am so thrilled to be coming to the RSC alongside the brilliant Stewart Pringle. To be given the opportunity to call somewhere home as a playwright is really rare. Rarer still in a theatre that has such a rich history and as it starts to write its next exciting chapter. I am greatly looking forward to being part of a team that I know will help lots of other writers feel like the Company can be a home for them too. Can’t wait!” Dr Cooper’s plays include Northanger Abbey, inspired by the Austen novel, (Orange Tree Theatre, Bolton Octagon, TBTL and SJT), an adaptation of David Almond’s novel A Song for Ella Grey (Pilot/Northern Stage and touring), Out of Water (Orange Tree) and Jess and Joe Forever (Orange Tree, touring and Traverse). She has been shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award, the Women’s Playwriting Prize and was the winner of the Off West End Most Promising Playwright Award. Alongside her work as a playwright, she has a background in dramaturgy and literary management. Zoe will be seconded from her role at Ãå±±½ûµØ, where she has worked for the last eight years after completing her PhD. Dr Zoe Cooper Hugely exciting RSC Co-Artistic Directors, Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Stewart and Zoe to the RSC as our Writers-in-Residence. To be working with not one but two playwrights of their calibre is a hugely exciting prospect and holds true to our commitment to place artists at the heart of everything we do. They will be key to forging meaningful and inclusive relationships with new and established artists, whilst unlocking innovative approaches to how we make work.” Share: Latest News Ãå±±½ûµØ expert highlights climate crisis in a new film A leading Ãå±±½ûµØ climate scientist is featured in a new film about how the climate and nature breakdown will affect the UK. published on: 14 April 2026 Neolithic tombs reveal ancient kinship ties Male individuals buried in Neolithic chambered tombs in northern Scotland were often related to each other through the paternal line and some were interred in the same or nearby tombs, research shows. published on: 14 April 2026 We are our Memories New exhibition by Fine Art graduate Trish Hudson-Moses, 22 April – 4 May 2026 published on: 10 April 2026 Facts and figures