Sky Studios Teams Up With Birmingham Rep

Sky Studios and Birmingham Rep have announced the return of 'Sky Comedy Rep', a joint partnership that aims to discover and nurture emerging comedy writing talent from across the UK, particularly from communities that have traditionally been under-represented in the Arts.

Now in its second year, the scheme, which is open for entries until Friday 12th August, will see eight writers selected to develop a one-act stage play. This year, all plays will focus on a simple premise: a proposal in the park.

Each of the eight plays will feature up and coming acting and directing talent, performed as part of a three-day festival at The Rep in early 2023.

Last year, twins and writing duo Mari and Lowri Izzard were selected to take part and following the performance of their play Spoffin, the pair have been commissioned by Sky Studios to write further scripts which are in active development.

"Sky Comedy Rep gave us the opportunity to be in a room we never would have had access to before. We learnt so much and had a really great time working with the teams from The Birmingham Rep and Sky Studios. Thanks to the scheme, we're currently developing Spoffin for screen. We owe a lot to Sky Comedy Rep and encourage everyone and anyone to apply. Go on; give it a go!," the duo said.

Throughout the six-month programme, writers will be paid for their work and receive one-to-one mentoring from some of the Greats from British Comedy. Last year, mentors included: Meera Syal (Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars), Simon Blackwell (The Thick of It, Veep) Danny Brocklehurst (award-winning series Brassic, Shameless) and Guz Khan (Man Like Mobeen), with this year’s mentors set to be announced in autumn. There will also be a series of workshops and masterclasses at The Rep, to provide insights into all aspects of writing and production.

The initiative will be overseen by The Rep's Artistic Director, Olivier Award-winning Sean Foley (The Play What I Wrote) and Sky Studios Creative Director of Comedy, BAFTA Award-winning Anil Gupta (Goodness Gracious Me, The Office).

Anil Gupta, Creative Director of Comedy at Sky Studios, said: "We were thrilled with the first edition of Sky Comedy Rep; nurturing, mentoring, and backing the next generation of Comedy talent aligns perfectly with our ambition to become the home of British TV comedy. Working with the writers was a joy and the plays were a triumph. This year is going to be even bigger and better. Like all sequels."