Top Drama School Announces Next New Writing Team

Henry Waddon and Gabe Winsor, new writing commission at top uk drama school OSD oxford school of drama

As a drama school that is continually striving to look ahead at the landscape of contemporary British theatre, we believe that a drama school training should have new writing at its core.

OSD is a drama school proud to champion new writing and the development of early career professionals across the whole landscape of theatre, not just actors. We display this through our innovative New Writing Scheme.

This scheme sees four early-career artists work with our One-Year and Three-Year courses to help develop a brand new piece of writing. Students take part in a series of research and development workshops with the chosen Writer and Director before entering rehearsals and eventually debuting the play in a London theatre.

With the New Year in full swing, we’re beginning to look ahead to our public productions and our first New Writing project of 2025. We’re thrilled to announce this academic year’s first New Writing team: Henry Waddon, Writer, and Gabe Winsor, Director.

Henry and Gabe will work with our third-year students to produce a completely new script to be performed at a yet-to-be-announced London venue.

Henry is a writer, actor and newly-qualified doctor. He has recently written for renowned institutions such as the Old Vic, Pentabus Theatre, VAULT Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe, in addition to being selected for programmes like BBC Writersroom Voices, the Old Vic TheatreMakers, the Almeida Theatre Young Company and the NSDF Writers’ Lab. He is the current Theatr Clwyd Writer in Residence, and was recently selected as a ‘Playwright of Tommorow’ by Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass, with an extract of his writing performed at an industry sharing at the Other Palace in London’s West End. His first play, PLAGUED, received the Best New Play award at the Oxford University New Writing Festival.

Gabe Winsor is a writer and director from Dorset, now based in London. Gabe is the artistic director of Buzzcut, who specialise in making live performances with live cameras. Buzzcut was one of the North Wall’s 2023 ArtsLab companies. His work has been shortlisted for The New Diorama’s Untapped Award and The Pleasance’s Charlie Hartill Award. His first play Sockpuppet was an Evening Standard top pick of VAULT festival. His most recent work, Bark Bark, enjoyed a sold-out run at Summerhall as part of the Edinburgh Fringe 2024, and was described as an “A magical blend of live performance, puppetry, and cinema” (★ ★ ★ ★ The Skinny, The Scotsman, Fest). He has directed plays at venues such as The King’s Head, The North Wall, and the Curve Theatre.

A key component of OSD training is bringing our students together with young writers and directors to workshop and develop new work. These projects are incredibly valuable for our students and form part of the larger networking and professional development elements of their training. One of the biggest benefits to training at a world-class Drama School like OSD is the kind of connections you can build with other industry professionals who can go on to employ you as a professional. Many students have left OSD and gone on to work with Directors and Writers whom they met during their time at the school. If this sounds exciting to you, our applications for September 2025 entry are open now!  

We are excited to welcome Henry and Gabe into the OSD family and can’t wait to see what they will create with our third-year students.