Olivier-award-nominated playwright and Sky Arts Award winner Ryan Calais Cameron today announces The Ryan Calais Cameron Season, an ambitious new development and production programme launched in association with Broadway Theatre, Catford. The initiative is designed to champion the next generation of British playwrighting talent at a time when opportunities for emerging creatives are rapidly diminishing.
The programme will provide vital resources including dramaturgical support, financial backing, development space and mentorship to three early-career Black and Global Majority writers based in the borough of Lewisham. Justice Ezi, Demi Wilson-Smith and Kaleb D’Aguilar’s respective plays — Last Goal Wins, Cranes and How to Keep Warm in Winter — will be progressed from early-stage scripts into fully realised productions with 12 performances each in the Broadway Theatre’s Studio. A complete pipeline, from development to staged production.
The three plays have been hand-picked by Ryan Calais Cameron, whose acclaimed credits include For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy and Retrograde. He also has a new play Afronauts opening at The Royal Court in November this year. The Ryan Calais Cameron Season marks a deeply personal milestone. Having grown up in Lewisham with the Broadway Theatre on his doorstep, Ryan alongside Broadway Theatre, seek to dismantle structural barriers and create authentic localised support.
Under Ryan’s direct mentorship the three playwrights will vitally receive a fully funded dedicated production run across the upcoming summer and autumn months and employment for over 23 creatives. The season launches with Last Goal Wins now on sale from 1 – 12 July.
Ryan Calais Cameron says: “Growing up in Lewisham, the Broadway Theatre was the place that sparked my creative imagination. To establish this season is a dream come true, but more importantly, it’s a structural necessity. The new writing sector is facing a massive crisis, and we risk losing an entire generation of vital Global Majority working-class voices if we don’t build doors for them to walk through.
“Justice, Demi, and Kaleb are phenomenal talents. What makes their plays so unique is how fiercely they capture universal truths, culture, and deep personal resilience. I’m incredibly proud to provide the resources and mentorship they deserve, and I can’t wait to champion their work as it takes centre stage in Catford.”
The full line-up features:
Last Goal Wins by Justice Ezi (1 – 12 July): A high stakes football drama which follows two footballers competing for a place on the Nigerian national team. Particularly relevant and timely in the run up to the World Cup season and the narrative around belonging in sport. Explores themes around Nigerian football culture, identity, brotherhood and power.
Cranes by writer and performer Demi Wilson-Smith (23 September – 4 October): A moving depiction of the personal cost of activism. Cranes, is Demi’s true story about the suppression of protest, the brutality of the criminal justice system, and the heroes who don’t get commemorated by statues. At least not at first.
How To Keep Warm in Winter by Kaleb D’Aguilar (14 – 25 October): A Caribbean love story set against the adversity of 1970s London. Following Jamaican newlyweds navigating racism and economic hardship, exploring themes of migration, race, economic crisis and family. Kaleb’s writing debut receives its first-ever staging after being long-listed for the prestigious Alfred Fagon Award.
Broadway Theatre’s Principal Producer Carmel O’Connor says: “New writing cannot survive without venues taking risks and a leap of faith. At Broadway Theatre, we are committed to funding and producing new work at scale in a meaningfully way that supports underrepresented writers and gives a voice to untold stories. We are incredibly proud to partner with Ryan, one of our country’s most exciting playwrights on his landmark season which delivers on this promise – bringing powerful and very personal ‘page to stage’ narratives to life through fully realised productions in our Studio theatre.”
“These three plays deserve to be seen by audiences. At a time when others are stepping back, Broadway Theatre is pushing forward and demonstrating what is possible when a venue invests in and commits to their long-term development.”