Announcing writers and actors for our first LIVE READ

Hot writing for a hot climate

Thank you again to everybody who submitted to our first Live Read, Hot Topics! It was an embarrassment of riches and we were lucky to get to read so many curious, exciting, inventive and passionate pieces, even though unfortunately we had to narrow it down to seven, otherwise the evening would have gone on forever, and The Glitch would have kicked us out (booo).

These are the writers whose work we have chosen to programme:
Gaar Adams
Jessica Mackie Hunter
Sam Moody
Jess Moore
Charlotte Newman
Jessica Riches
Nathan Wood

Each one is inventive, exciting and shines a light on the climate crisis through a unique and specific lens.

And these are the actors performing the work: Lola Knight, Jacquetta May, Michael Parr, Megan Prescott and Tosin Thompson.

We can’t wait for you to see their pieces performed out loud on Tuesday 29th, 7:00pm at The Glitch (134 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7AE).

Messy Collective Live Reads are for unpolished, unfinished work. It's raw and it's messy. After the performances, there will be a reverse Q&A ~ a chance for the writers to ask the audience questions. This evening is a chance for writers to hear their words read aloud and get real-time responses so they can evolve and edit. We think it’ll be a lot of fun.

Spaces are VERY limited, so be quick to get one ~ and please only book if you’re sure you can make it.

Bios for the fabulous creatives involved below.

Writers:

Gaar Adams

Gaar Adams is an American writer and journalist whose reporting from the Middle East and South Asia has been featured in international publications including The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, and Foreign Policy. His fiction and poetry have been published in anthologies such as Queer Life, Queer Love (Muswell Press), The Edwin Morgan Centenary Collection (Speculative Books) and Glasgow (Dostoyevsky Wannabe.) He is a former London Library Emerging Writer, and his writing has been supported by the Society of Authors, Bothy Project, and Penguin Books' WriteNow programme. His debut book -- a work of narrative nonfiction that weaves memoir with unprecedented reportage on queerness, migration and belonging in the Middle East -- will be published by Vintage/PRH in March 2024. Gaar holds a doctorate from the University of Glasgow and lives in Brixton.

Twitter: @gaaradams

Instagram: @gaar.adams

Jessica Mackie Hunter

Jessica Mackie Hunter is a queer Czech/Scottish writer/director and a recent graduate of Screen Academy Scotland, currently based in London. She has recently finished her first short film, ‘Rabbit’, which is now in post-production. With a focus on historically marginalised groups, her films explore community, identity, escapism, and disobedience through the lens of LGBTQIA+ folk, neurodivergence, and immigrant experience.

Twitter: @jmackieh

Instagram: @actofcynic

Sam Moody

Sam Moody is a BAFTA Rocliffe winning British-American writer. Her bankrupt parents moved her from Florida to rainy England and into a rambunctious Irish Catholic family where Sam learned to fit in by scaring her cousins senseless with late-night horror tales. She has made a life of starting over, going from a law degree, to teaching English in Japan, to leading corporate innovation at a global bank. Sam fell in love with screenwriting when she picked up gigs selling queer Buffy the Vampire Slayer erotica and scripts for indie horror games. She draws on her oddball life and complicated family relationships to pen tales of horror and adventure that challenge societal norms.

Twitter: @MoodySam

Instagram: @SammySan

Jess Moore

Jess Moore is an award-winning director and an award-nominated playwright. Her directorial debut short film, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD was funded by Warner Bros. Discovery’s Artist Studio, the OneFifty, for innovative and impactful filmmakers. Her debut play, GIN FOR BREAKFAST was Offie nominated for Best New Play. She's written a 10x20min Audible Original series, BOOK LOVERS, several plays, and short films that have been selected by BAFTA and BIFA qualifying festivals. Her TV pitch, NO MAN'S LAND was selected for Hot House, the BBC Writersroom and BFI-backed inaugural climate change script development lab. She's a WFTV Mentee, mentored by Alice Birch, and a member of BAFTA Connect. Currently, she's completing a PhD in screenwriting and the themes of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and developing lots of exciting projects for film, TV and theatre. She is represented by Jennifer Thomas at United Agents.

Instagram: @jessmooreinstagram

Charlotte Newman

Charlotte Newman's writing has appeared in publications including The London Magazine, Popshot Quarterly, the Reflex Press anthologies and Litro. An Emerging Writer with the London Library, she is currently writing a collection of zodiac-inspired stories, from which Two Tails Tied is taken.

Instagram: @charlotte.a.newman

Twitter: @whim_and_her

Jessica Riches

Jessica Riches is a London-based writer, represented by Mark Brennan at United Agents. Her work has been recognised by the New Voice Awards, BBC Writersroom, The Hot House (BFI & BBC Writersroom), Cannes Unlimited, Screencraft and more.

Her first short film, horror romance BEAUTIFUL THINGS (House38 and RWI Productions) is currently being submitted to festivals. Directed by Maya Zupano (Institute Artists) and starring Tallulah Haddon (The Last Duel, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch), Loreece Harrison (Pennyworth, Misbehaviour, Black Mirror) and Tom Stourton (All My Friends Hate Me, Stath Lets Flats).

RESCUE is her next short, a proof-of-concept for a surreal climate horror feature.

Twitter: @littlemisswilde

Instagram: @littlemisswilde

Nathan Wood

Nathan Lucky Wood is a writer for theatre, film and TV. His plays include Alcatraz (Vault Festival), A Haunting (King's Head, Vault Festival, Belgrade Theatre Coventry) and Ham (The Roundhouse, Space Arts Centre). His last play, The Levellers, was long-listed for the Verity Bargate Prize and Alcatraz was selected by Nick Hern Books for publication in Plays From Vault 4. He was a London Library Emerging Writer for 2020-21, and a former member of the Mikron Theatre Emerging Writers Scheme and Soho Young Writers.

Actors:

Lola Knight

Lola Knight is a British-Polish actor. She speaks fluent French and Polish. Having graduated from University College London with First Class Honours and trained at the Ecole du Jeu in Paris and with the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, Lola has performed in stage productions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and several London venues including Bloomsbury Theatre, Etcetera Theatre, the Hen & Chickens Theatre and South London Theatre. Roles include Jess in Dennis Kelly’s ‘Love and Money’, Nina in ’The Seagull’ and Jane in ‘Jane Eyre’. Recent film credits include: Ella (lead) in political horror feature ’The Apocalypse Box’ and The Woman (supporting) in ‘Nothing But Blue’. Lola is involved in several films and proof of concepts currently in production and loves working with emerging talent.

Jacquetta May

Jacquetta May is a writer, actor, and theatre director. She co-created the BBC youth drama UGetMe (3 series), wrote the BBC 4 film In Love With Barbara (Anne Reid and David Warner), and adapted Erica Jong's iconic novel Fear of Flying. Her legal thriller Lawless (Suranne Jones, Lindsay Duncan) was piloted on Sky Living. She has written episodes for No Angels, New Tricks, Torchwood and Living The Dream, amongst others.

She co-founded the award winning, new writing theatre company Plain Clothes Productions, commissioning, producing and directing work that toured nationally and showed at BAC, The Bush, and Young Vic, directing a show at The Lyric, Hammersmith and more recently for Off Broadway N.Y. Her acting career includes being a regular in EastEnders, Cardiac Arrest, Dangerfield, Home Farm Twins, and appearances at The National Theatre, The Royal Exchange and Liverpool Playhouse. She is a trustee at Chats Palace Arts Centre, Hackney.

Michael Parr

Michael is most commonly known for his portrayal of Ross Barton in ITV's Emmerdale (2013-2018). With a background in theatre and musical theatre, Michael has performed on some of the UK's most famous stages, and recently finished performing as Bob in Andrea Dunbar's classic "Rita, Sue and Bob Too". He is currently working on a Bollywood courtroom drama feature, and can be seen on TV alongside David Morrisey, Danny May and Toby Jones in this summer's ITV's drama "The Long Shadow", about the police chase for notorious murderer Peter Sutcliffe.

Megan Prescott

Megan is an actor, writer and director who starred as Katie Fitch in the Channel4 drama ‘Skins’. Since ‘Skins,’ Megan has continued acting, as well as training as a writer/director. She worked in the development team at Balloon Entertainment and completed a writing internship at Fox Studios, LA. Megan was selected for Soho writer’s lab and The Bush Theatre’s Playwright’s Group (20/21) and completed a directing course at NFTS last summer. Most recently, Megan co-wrote and starred in ‘Stripped’ at the Vaults Festival (2023) and is currently working on her debut solo show, which she will be taking to Edinburgh in 2024.

Mollie Semple

Mollie is an actor and a writer. With a background in theatre, she trained at All In Actors after her English Lit degree at Cambridge where she spent more time rehearsing than actually studying. In 2018, she performed her critically acclaimed one woman show, "Loneliness and Other Adventures," at the Edinburgh Fringe and was invited to perform at the Drayton Arms Theatre the following year. 

Recently, Mollie took on the role of Persephone in a modern adaptation of the Greek myth, which she co-wrote and performed at the Brighton Fringe festival. 

Mollie has been sharing her insights and experiences on her blog, The Fully Intended, since the tender age of 14. Her work predominantly centers around the female and queer experience.

Tosin Thompson

Tosin Thompson’s feature film credits include: After Ever Happy (Amazon Prime), and she has acted on stage in The Pocket (Theatre Peckham) and Shipped (Theatre West). She trained at the National Youth Theatre. Tosin is also a journalist who has written pieces for The Guardian, New Statesman, New Humanist, Prospect, and Nature.