The Collective

Mhairi is a Scottish playwright, poet and screenwriter whose work spans theatre, television, film, and children's television.  Her plays have been performed at the Tron Theatre, Traverse Theatre, Dundee Rep, Assembly Roxy, CCA Glasgow, and Òran Mór. She was a finalist for the Tron's Progressive Playwright Award with ‘The Bridge Street Flats’, while her short play ‘Preparing for the Afterlife’ was commissioned for the Take Me Somewhere Festival and directed by Andy Arnold. She was selected for the Playwrights' Studio Scotland Mentoring Programme, developing ‘Politics of the White Stuff ‘ under the mentorship of Morna Pearson.

Mhairi is one-third of The Tandem Writing Collective, working as a writer, director, and producer. Her dark comedy ‘Rage Room’ premiered to sell-out audiences at the Tron Theatre and Traverse Theatre as part of the company’s Rock Paper Scissors project which was supported by Creative Scotland and the National Theatre of Scotland. Her play ‘Billie’, produced by Fast Forward and Rolled Up Productions, toured schools all across Scotland through funding from GambleAware.

Alongside her theatre work Mhairi writes for television and film. Her screen work includes the short film ‘Little White Lies’, co-produced by INDELIBLE INK through the Glasgow Film Accelerator Scheme led by Sigma Films and the Scottish Film Talent Network. The script of which was shortlisted for the Underwire Festival. Mhairi was selected for the BBC Scottish Voices programme by the BBC Writers room. Throughout this programme she further developed her comedy writing skills and has created original comedy pilots for TV.

Mhairi has built an extensive career writing for children's television. She was part of the writing team for ‘Winnie and Wilbur’ for Milkshake! on Channel 5, based on the bestselling books by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul. Following recognition for her CBBC comedy monologue Packed Lunches, Mhairi was invited to join the BBC Children's New Voices Scheme. She has since contributed to many programmes for young audiences – with a particular focus on comedy. She has worked on ‘CBeebies Presents’ and joined the development team for ‘Attention Action Ayshia’ - following a recommendation from former CBBC Controller Kay Benbow and funded by the BFI’s Young Audience Content Fund. Mhairi has also written on both seasons of ‘Roots and Fruits’ for CBeebies, which was shortlisted for Best Pre-School Programme at the 2024 Broadcast Awards and featured in the PRIX JEUNESSE catalogue for Quality in Children's TV Worldwide. Her television credits include writing the pilot and episode outlines for ‘Grandad's Camper’ for The Woven Thread and developing ‘Dreamland’ for Curious Dreamers – both Glasgow based productions companies.

A qualified Drama and Pastoral Care teacher, Mhairi can communicate in British Sign Language. She was delighted to be selected as a ‘BAFTA Connect’ member and is committed to continually developing her craft.

Right now Mhairi is working with CBeebies on ‘Mr Tumble’s Something Special’ and is part of the core writing team on ‘Balamory’ for Lion Television.

Jennifer is an award winning Scottish Playwright. Her professional credits include Ivor (Play, Pie and a Pint, Oran Mor/Traverse Theatre) which was developed with Tandem Writing Collective; HER (Strange Town Theatre Company); Balisong (Strange Town Theatre Company) and Looped (BBC Radio Drama Shorts). She was also recently invited to share new work at the inaugural Offspring Festival at Summerhall Arts run by Kolective Theatre.

HER and Balisong are plays for young audiences, both have been published by Salamander Street    Publishers and the latter has been seen by over 44,000 young people, touring schools in every local authority in Scotland.

Jennifer has written two plays for the Edinburgh Just Festival as part of the Edinburgh Fringe with Black Dingo Productions, one of which, Warrior, went on to tour in two separate school runs funded by Nil by Mouth and Sense over Sectarianism. Warrior also received a run at the Citizen's Theatre in Glasgow.

Jennifer has written a number of short plays and extracts, working with Strange Town Theatre Company, Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, Play Pie and Pint, Tron Theatre, Moonfly Theatre Company, In Motion Theatre Company, Braw Fox Theatre Company, Discover 21 and Village Pub Theatre.

Jennifer was shortlisted for the Tron Theatre’s Mayfesto Award in 2019 and has been mentored by Lynda Radley (Playwrights Studio Scotland Mentorship Programme) and Stef Smith (Tandem Writing Collective's Rock, Paper, Scissors Project) She also created the 4am Feeding Sessions - an online collection of poetry from the middle of the night featuring 20 plus micro-poems on new parenthood which she wrote from home in lockdown.

Amy Hawes is a Glasgow-based TV writer, playwright and primary teacher. She was the sole writer on two series of animated educational films produced by Playdead, culminating in 49 short films for BBC Bitesize Scotland ('The Victorians', aged 9-11) and BBC Bitesize Wales ('KS3 Science', aged 11-14). Other commissions include a series of online training videos for the NHS (RealPlay), and episodes of CBeebies 'Molly & Mack' and 'Biggleton' TX Nov & Dec 2018.

Amy has written/directed a BAFTA New Talent-winning film ('Falling for Fitzgerald', 2012). She's worked as researcher/AP on 20+ TV shows including 'Hollyoaks', 'Down on the Farm', & 'Saturday Mash Up' ; as Jnr. Storyliner on 'River City'; & in development for Warner Bros. Specialising in children's TV, she's written/directed sketches for CBBC Presentation & CBBC travelogue 'All Over the Place'. Graduating with an MA in English Language from Edinburgh University in 2009, Amy was awarded a scholarship from Warner Bros. Creative Talent for the celebrated MA TV Fiction Writing Course at Glasgow Caledonian University, graduating with distinction in 2014 and a treasured alumni position on the WBCT programme.

In 2021, Amy began a brand new adventure and met her most demanding audience / collaborators to date. She is now a primary teacher, sharing her love of making up stories with six and seven year olds.