We’re delighted to announce the names of writers and directors taking part in Catalyst 2026, our residency for early career theatre artists taking place from Monday 30 March – Friday 10 April 2026.
Writers
Roxana Rae Bartle (left)
Roxana is an actor, writer and musician from a small town in Somerset. She began writing as a child creating spoof Eastenders scripts for her older brother and sister to perform, begrudgingly. Since then she went on to train as an actor at Rose Bruford college. She has worked in theatre and film both in the UK and Europe whilst paying her bills working as a supply teacher. Having worked extensively with new writing as an actor, Catalyst marks the first time Roxana’s writing has been performed in a professional theatre.
Ruby Crepin-Glyne (centre)
Ruby is writer and actor who graduated from The Oxford School of Drama. Her acting credits include performing in Olivier Award nominated ‘The Swell’ at The Orange Tree Theatre.
Writing credits include her debut play DOTTIE, that will be performed at Camden Fringe this year. Her short film I’m A Savage also came runner up in Curzon Cinema’s short film competition celebrating female filmmakers.
Ruby’s writing typically explores race and identity, taking inspiration from her own life. Having been born in Britain to immigrant parents, she grew up with a mixture of cultures (West African and French) and feels passionately about writing stories that are usually underrepresented.
Hannah Eggleton (right)
Hannah is an actor-writer based in Buckinghamshire.
She is currently studying an MSt in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford, a course specialising in cross-genre practice. Her stage play Growing Pains won the RSC 37 Plays Project in 2023. Her short story Where The Grass Grows was shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship New Writing Prize and her poem Dinner with a Dead Man is set for publication in The Ash: The Darkroom Anthology later this year. In 2025, Hannah developed her stage play CRUSH as part of the North Wall ArtsLab. She is excited to be back this year, joining the Catalyst cohort.
Adil Hassan (left)
Adil Hassan is a writer and actor from London, trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His work is tragicomic, absurdist, and formally ambitious- finding epic scale in the domestic. From Egyptian and Indonesian heritage, working class and Muslim, he is committed to telling stories from the inside of communities more often written about than written by. His writing has been performed at the Royal Court, Soho Theatre, Bush Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith, Kiln Theatre, Tara Theatre, and Trafalgar Theatre. He is a member of Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab and NYT Script School.
Lucy Havard (centre)
Lucy Havard is an actor and writer who trained at LAMDA. She forms half of the theatre company Seagull Productions, and their original play Insides was selected for the Pleasance’s New Work Season. The company were recently announced to be Platform Resident Artists at artsdepot where they are being supported in developing their audio-drama Wood Wide Web into a play for young audiences. The Bird is her original play which is being developed as part of the Catalyst scheme. Earlier versions of the play have been selected for Scratch Cymru, and LegBreakers by Cloudburst.
Ayọ̀ Owóyẹmi-Peters (right)
Ayọ̀ Owóyẹmi-Peters is an actor-writer, who has performed on London’s West End and featured on Netflix. Ayọ̀ first began writing poetry and spoken word before exploring dramatic writing. Her first audio play aired on BBC Radio 6 in 2020, and she is the inaugural winner of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School’s 2026 Future Playwright Competition. Influenced by her faith and the presence of Jesus in her life, Ayọ̀’s writing seeks to reveal that all our stories are seen, heard and profoundly known by God. She is currently working on her first full length stage play.
Directors
Hamza Ali (left)
Hamza Ali is a London-based director and movement director working across new writing and contemporary theatre. His work combines movement analysis with psychological realism, exploring the physical life of language. Credits include Where There Is No Time (Seven Dials Playhouse), Our Place (Lyric Hammersmith), The Maladies (Kiln Theatre), Community (Birmingham Rep) and Statues (Bush Theatre). He was Resident Director on Dante or Die’s Kiss Marry Kill (National Theatre Studios / UK tour) and has developed new work at venues including artsdepot, The Place and Camden People’s Theatre.
Arthur Kemp (centre)
Arthur is a theatre-maker from the South of England. He has a degree in theatre and performance. Arthur is excited by stories made and told by people outside of the traditional performance hubs, that from unexpected places with authentic things to say. Outside of theatre, he has a keen academic interest in security, thinking about how countries build collective security in response to the fragmented period we’re in. His hope is to bring a creative lens to nurture human solutions to technical problems.
Haiqing Liang (right)
Haiqing is a theatre director and dramaturg born in China, raised in Singapore, and trained in the UK. She creates playful, visually innovative and movement-driven work across new writing, classical texts and devised theatre. She is drawn to work that explores the undercurrents of human nature and contemporary socio-political phenomena. She has directed, assisted, and completed observerships at theatres such as the Orange Tree, New Vic, and Yvonne Arnaud. Recent assistant and associate directing credits: Woo Woolf (The Cockpit), Henry V (Site-specific). Recent dramaturgy credit: Cara and Kelly are Best Friends Forever for Life (Seven Dials Playhouse, Omnibus & Pleasance
Join us on Friday 10 April to see the work created during the Catalyst residency. Book tickets here.
