The Stephen Joseph Theatre announces that playwright Kat Rose-Martin will be joining them on an 18-month attachment. Kat is one of four recipients of the 2025 Playwrights ’73 Award, a bursary of £15,000 funded by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation, which places four playwrights with four UK theatres for 18 months.
Kat will be writing a Christmas show for the under-sixes, set to be seen in December this year. Additionally, she will be working on a play for a possible future production in the theatre’s Round auditorium. She will receive dramaturgical support from the SJT’s Artistic Director Paul Robinson, who has an outstanding track record of developing new plays both at the SJT and in his previous role at Theatre 503.
Kat has a strong connection with Scarborough, visiting annually with her family since she was a child. In 2022, she was commissioned to write a final year showcase for students studying a BA in Drama at CU Scarborough, which was performed at the SJT. Her writing gave each actor a tailored and unique piece of work to display a range of performance skills. Kat is keen that her work further engages both families visiting the theatre as audiences and the young artists who perform here.
She says: “I’m so thrilled to be working with the SJT! My dad used to put out chairs for Alan Ayckbourn many moons ago. Scarborough and this theatre have always had a very special place in my heart. I can’t wait to join such a nurturing and passionate team and share my work with the wonderful audiences here.”
Paul Robinson says: “Here at the SJT, we’re celebrating our 70th birthday this year – that’s 70 years of supporting playwrights and new writing, so this seems a perfect year for us to receive the Playwright ’73 award. We’re so looking forward to having the talented Kat Rose-Martin on attachment with us here in Scarborough throughout this special year – we can’t wait to start creating some wonderful new work with her.”
Bradford born and based, Kat is a writer/actor and inaugural winner of the Kay Mellor Fellowship. In 2020, she was part of BBC Writersroom’s Northern Voices. In 2021, she was selected for the SKY COMEDY REP writers’ scheme. Her play £1 Thursdays was named as ‘the finest new play I saw in 2023’ by Gary Naylor at Broadway World.
On screen, her TV drama The Crossleys made the BAFTA Rocliffe TV Drama Top 10 and is now in development in the US. She has original TV projects in development with Rollem, Dancing Ledge, Urban Myths, Warp and APC, and a pilot commission with BBC3. Her script Ursula, developed with RED Productions, made The Brit List 2021. Theatre includes Aphra Behn (Shakespeare’s Globe), Jane Hair (Bronte Society), Shit but Mine (Paines Plough), Children of War (Sheffield Theatres), Whooosh (Pilot Theatre).
Playwrights ’73 began in 1973 as a way of allowing playwrights to be attached to a theatre and have the time, money and support to write a new play. It has gone under various names over the years: Thames Television Playwrights Scheme, Pearson Playwrights Scheme and, most recently, Film Four/Peggy Ramsay Playwrights Scheme.
Margaret ‘Peggy’ Ramsey was agent to some of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century, including the SJT’s Director Emeritus Alan Ayckbourn, until her death in 1991. The Peggy Ramsay Foundation was formed in 1992 by Laurence Harbottle and Simon Callow out of her estate. In 2024, the PRF gave grants to 78 playwrights worth £266,000 in total and in the last 10 years the PRF has given £2m to playwrights.
Previous playwrights who have participated in the scheme include James Graham, Chris Bush, Ella Hickson, Nick Payne, Bola Agbaje, Richard Bean and Winsome Pinnock.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
