R&D 2025
| How to Train Your Dad to Be a Feminist by Sophie Wink is a new play in development. The play explores the deep rooted misogyny in our family relationships as one family’s celebratory dinner unravels around their kitchen table. Through the play’s characters, we experience the tension between a generation yearning for change, parents fighting against the attitudes of the generations before, and a family holding on to love. The sharing, free to a public audience at Aberdeen Arts Centre on 24th October 2025, was performed to 40 attendees. The project is led by an early-career team of theatre-makers based in the North and North East Scotland. |
Sophie is based in Inverness and writes with an interest in autobiographical performance, using her personal experiences to fuel her writing and contextualise wider social issues. Growing up in Elgin, Sophie’s experience as a young woman in a working class north-east household is the basis of the play’s relationships.
Sophie is a UHI Inverness Drama and Performance BA(Hons) graduate. The degree has instilled her with a desire to work in and from the Highlands and was the launchpad to her work as a co-founder of Vivid Roots Collective. Find out more here.
The Team
Sophie Bender | Director
Sophie is an emerging director based in the north-east of Scotland. She is a 2020 graduate of the UHI Inverness Drama and Performance BA(Hons) and is interested in working on new writing, In-Yer-Face theatre, and devised performance.
R&D 2023
The first stage of the project involved a 3-day R&D at Eden Court, Inverness in September 2023. This allowed Sophie Bender (director) to work with performers on a first draft of the play. The performer roles were openly recruited (casting call at the bottom of the page). The focus of the R&D was on the creative development of the emerging team so the performance was shared to an invited online audience for Wink to collect feedback on the text and characters, and for Bender to develop her directing practice.
This R&D and play commission was funded by National Lottery via Creative Scotland and was supported in-kind by Eden Court Theatre.
Cast
Jennifer Barron | PENNY
Jennifer is an Edinburgh-based performer who trained at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and graduated with an MA Distinction in Acting. Her recent work includes BBC Doctors and her solo show Pie Hole, as part of the Juicy Bits Open Arts evening, which explores chronic illness and diet culture. Her feminist values are a motif throughout all of her work, and she strives to encourages us through performance to look after each other better. Check out Jennifer’s Instagram and X (Twitter) for more
TJ Cameron | ALFIE
TJ is an emerging actor taking his first steps into a career in the performing arts. He currently studies Acting and Theatre Performance at UHI Inverness and has a long history with local amateur dramatics, performing in Scrooge! The Musical this christmas (2023). Check out TJ’s Instagram for more.
Deborah Whyte | JOANNE
After a 2 year course at Edinburgh Acting School and Trinity Guildhall graded Exams, Deborah has worked in TV, theatre, film and commercials, including: [TV] BBC Scotland’s The Grey Area, BBC 2’s The Flu that Killed 50 Million, andRiver City; [Theatre] Overshadowed (Edinburgh Fringe), Warrier (Citizens & School Tour), a series of Dementia friendly plays from Citadel Arts, Twelve Twelve Theatre, Through the Stage Door (Edinburgh Playhouse); [Film] the Indonesian blockbuster Ayat Ayat Cinta, an award-winning comedy A Spanking in Paradise, Blackbird with Norman Mclean; and more.
Paul Beeson | TONY
Paul is an Edinburgh-based actor, writer, voice-over artist, musician and teacher. He has toured various stage productions nationally and internationally, and recently filmed a role in The Crown for Netflix. He was part of the BBC Writers Room Scottish Voices in 2020, and has written three award nominated plays, A War of Two Halves, Sweet FA and Never Trouble Trouble (Till Trouble Troubles You). In 2022, Paul won a DarkChat award for ‘Best Performance in a Play’. Check out Paul’s Instagram and X (Twitter) for more.
Mentors
In my work as a producer, I often work with emerging theatre-makers. A cornerstone of this work is mentorship as it helps artists to feel supported in the work and leads them to better understanding of their practice and processes.
Jack Nurse | Mentor Director
Jack is a critically-acclaimed director and theatre-maker. He trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the National Theatre Studio. In 2014, Jack co-founded Glasgow based theatre company Wonder Fools. Read more about Jack’s work here.
Morna Young | Mentor Playwright
Morna is a writer, journalist, and performer from the North East of Scotland. She was named Scots Writer of the Year at the 2019 Scots Language Awards. Among many credits, Morna has written The Snow Queen (2023), The Stamping Ground (2023), and Lost at Sea (2019) for Scottish stages. Read more about Morna’s work here.
Laura Valerie Walker 