Our passion is working with storytellers—established and emerging. We are supporting the development of a new generation of storytellers through our own bespoke initiatives and commitments to pioneering organisations that invest in emerging voices in our local communities.
Launched in 2018, this provides young writers with a salaried, supportive environment in which to develop their skills and ideas. The scheme provides participants with invaluable insight into the development and production process to equip them with the experience and skills needed to succeed in the world of TV screenplay writing and producing. WIR alumni includes playwrights Miriam Battye, Monsay Whitney, Yasmin Joseph and Zahra Al-Sultani. The current 2023 participant is Igor Memic whose debut play Old Bridge won the 2020 Papatango New Writing Prize.
South of the River and SISTER are partners on a competition designed to create essential opportunities for emerging comedy writer performers to showcase their work following a summer of cultural lockdown in 2020. Funded by South of the River and SISTER the scheme provides successful applicants with the opportunity to develop their original idea from stage to screen. Competition Producer Debo Adebayo, brings his strong creative instincts and experience in UK theatre, together with a proven track record of advocating for inclusion.
Ghetto Film School
SISTER is the founding partner for Ghetto Film School (GFS) London which launched with its first cohort of 20 students in summer 2020. Started in the South Bronx, New York, in 2000, GFS is an award winning nonprofit which aims to educate, develop and celebrate the next generation of great storytellers. With a strategy of identifying young talent from the local community for its creative education programme, GFS has a proven track record of breaking down barriers to access in the industry.
Scene and Heard is a unique mentoring project that partners the children of Somers Town, London with volunteer theatre and Film/ TV professionals. The children are given intensive, one-to-one adult attention, enabling them to write plays which are then performed by professional actors. SISTER provides ongoing support of this local charity with sponsorship and donations of time & advice.
SISTER is working closely with this local school in Islington, an area with the highest percentage of underprivileged children in London, to develop a long-term programme of cultural enrichment. The aim is to provide access to a creative education and to encourage more students to consider a future in an industry where individuals from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds are poorly represented. The programme includes a reading initiative where SISTER creates ‘reading passports’ and donates new books to the school.