Theatre company Out of Joint has revealed the writers taking part in its new writing initiative, Stockroom.
From 750 applications, six writers of varying styles have been selected for salaried positions forming a semi-permanent team producing collaborative work that is "challenging, relevant and popular".
The selected writers are writer and visual artist Maheni Arthur, theatre maker Georgia Crowther, actor, writer and director Tonderai Munyevu, award-winning comedian, writer, composer and actor Vikki Stone, film and stage writer and director Isaac Tomiczek and playwright Chris York.
In taking this step, Out of Joint is "reinventing the commissioning process", moving away from individual writers to a collaborative model that starts immediately with two digital projects for this summer and a new piece for the stage to be produced next year.
More generally, four new stage pieces will come out of the Stockroom in each year.
Out of Joint executive producer Martin Derbyshire said, "while theatre is always collaborative and many people work in groups to create new writing, we believe that putting six writers on payroll during a time like this is a radical approach to the challenges that theatre is facing and will face over the coming years. We're committed to putting writers first and getting unrepresented voices onto the main stages around the country."
Out of Joint has worked on the Stockroom model with the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain, which see rights and royalties held by the artists.