The Royal Shakespeare Company has appointed Zoe Cooper and Stewart Pringle as writers in residence.
The playwrights will develop their own writing and lead the RSC’s new works team in mentoring playwrights, developing new ideas and establishing new ways of supporting writers.
RSC co-artistic directors Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans commented, “we’re absolutely delighted to welcome Stewart and Zoe to the RSC. 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 while unlocking innovative approaches to how we make work.”
Cooper said, “I’m so thrilled to be coming to the RSC. 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.”
Pringle added, “I'm over the moon to be joining the RSC at this incredible moment in its history and to be working with Zoe Cooper, one of my favourite playwrights. The RSC has long been a powerhouse for new work and it's going to be such a thrilling journey to become part of that team, supporting and nurturing writers as well as developing our own work.”
Cooper’s plays include Northanger Abbey,which was inspired by the Jane Austen novel and was produced by Orange Tree Theatre, Octagon Theatre, Stephen Joseph Theatre and Theatre by the Lake earlier in 2024, an adaptation of David Almond’s novel A Song for Ella Grey for Pilot Theatre, Northern Stage and York Theatre Royal, also in 2024, and Jess and Joe Forever for the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough in 2018.
Pringle’s work includes The Bounds for Royal Court Theatre and Live Theatre earlier in 2024, Trestle at Southwark Playhouse in 2017 and The Ghost Hunter which ran at the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh in 2013.