Pentabus today announces that Liv Hennessy is their first ever Jerwood Writer-in-Residence. She will take up the year long residency from January 2025.
Liv is originally from Hereford and wrote her first short play on the Pentabus Young Writer programme. Her first full length play, Vardy V Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial ran in the West End and was nominated for the Noël Coward Olivier Award. Liv has also worked as a story editor and producer on ITV’s Emmerdale.
Jerwood Foundation are providing £40,000 in funding over two years to fund the Bursary, which includes £8,000 per year to assist the process of finding and supporting the writer. The £12,000 Bursary is an increase of £2,000 from previous bursaries, recognising the increased cost of living and need to support artists of all levels at a financially challenging time.
Liv will spend time with the company at their new home in Ludlow Assembly Rooms, where her first ever short play was performed. She will teach on the Young Writers programme she came up through, and be supported to write a brand-new play.
Pentabus has a strong tradition of Writers in Residence. In recent years, it has supported the following Clive Richard Foundation Writers: Laura Waldren (resident 2023, Some Demon, Papatango Prize winner 2023), Florence Espeut-Nickless, (2021/2) whose Little Red (& Other Winter Tales) is about to open at Bristol Old Vic and who is under commission for National Theatre Connections, Tom Powell (2020/21, The Silence & the Noise, Papatango Prize winner 2021 and Off West End Award 2024), and Sophie Ellerby (2018/19, LIT, Nottingham Playhouse and tour). It has also hosted Channel 4 Writer-in-Residences Tim Foley (2017, Bruntwood Prize 2017; Driftwood UK tour 2023 & 2025), Joe White (2016, Little Big Things, @sohoplace) and Simon Longman (2015, George Devine winner), as well as Film4 and Peggy Ramsay Bursary winner Henry Madd (2023, Land of Lost Content, UK tour 2024), Historically its Writer-in-Residences have included Phil Porter and late BAFTA winner Nick Fisher.
Liv will join Pentabus in their 50th anniversary year, which has included a move to a new home at Ludlow Assembly Rooms, and the tour of Make Good: The Post Office Musical, which played sold-out dates across the country. Driftwood, written by former Writer-in-Residence Tim Foley, will tour mid-scale venues in early 2025 after a successful rural tour in 2023, in a co-production with ThickSkin. Commenting on the announcement, the new Jerwood Foundation Writer-in-Residence Liv Hennessy said:
“I’m so excited to be returning to Pentabus – the place where I wrote my first ever short play as a young writer. In what is a difficult climate for theatre – specifically for new writing – this residency will give me the time and support to work on a brand-new play. Pentabus has such a strong commitment to new writing, and to bringing theatre to the rural communities I grew up in, and I can’t wait to get started. A huge thank you to Jerwood Foundation.”
Pentabus Artistic Director Elle While added:
“Liv is an exceptional playwright and there is a beautiful full circle to her becoming the next Pentabus Jerwood Writer in Residence as she began her writing career as one of our Young Writers. Her first ever ten-minute play was written through the Pentabus course and staged here at the Ludlow Assembly Rooms. We can’t wait to welcome her into the team for the next year.”
Lara Wardle, Executive Director and Trustee, Jerwood Foundation said:
“I am delighted that Jerwood Foundation is supporting Pentabus, a leading rural theatre company, with a two-year £40,000 total grant to enable their important Writer in Residence programme, which will provide playwrights critical writing opportunities in the early stages of their careers.”
