Pat Cumper

48, writer

Biggest hit The Key Game, Riverside Studios, October 2002

Coming up Writing Elysium (working title) for the Royal Court.

Theatre is 'One of the most magical ways of telling stories, that allows for the use of words and rhythms in a way that I continue to find exciting.'

Theatre isn't 'Easy to find work in if you have stories to tell that are not through mainstream characters and situations.'

Inspiration 'Toni Morrison. My mother, the first black woman to get a law degree from Cambridge, who let me know that anything was possible. Not easy, but possible.'

Amber Lone

33, writer

Biggest hit Paradise, Birmingham Rep, ended April 2003.

Coming up A 45-minute radio play (working title: Ties) for BBC Radio 4, to be broadcast March 2004.

Theatre is 'A place to explore and take risks. Somewhere to create as freely as possible. It's possibility.'

Theatre isn't 'As diverse or as accessible as it should be, or could be. Not enough risks are taken.'

Inspiration 'Everything. The desire to explore what you see and what you don't see. People, life, experiences. Sometimes, it's individual characters that you want to mark, or celebrate, through writing.'

Winsome Pinnock

41, writer

Biggest hit Leave Taking, at Liverpool Playhouse, 1988.

Coming up Currently writing.

Theatre is 'A magic space where anything is possible. An arena where a society examines itself.'

Theatre isn't 'There is very little that isn't theatre. There are so many things you can do in that space.'

Inspiration 'Characters who have the sense they can't be held back.'

Angie Le Mar

36, writer

Biggest hit Funny Black Women On The Edge, Theatre Royal, Stratford, March and July 2003 (on until August 9).

Coming up Live at the Palladium, November 2003. Developing a sitcom for the BBC (working title: Sharp Cuts).

Theatre is 'A place of expression. A place to really work your true voice.'

Theatre isn't 'Glamorous. A place where you can hide. Built for egos.'
Inspiration 'Whoopi Goldberg. I saw her in a one-woman show at the Albany Empire when I was 14. If I can do half of what that woman does, I'll be pleased.'

Meera Syal

41, writer

Biggest hit Bombay Dreams, Apollo Theatre, London, opened June 2002, still running.

Coming up Bombay Dreams on Broadway, spring 2004.

Theatre is 'Braver and more willing to experiment, in both material and casting, and gives a voice to people who often don't find one on television.'

Theatre isn't 'Global enough. It should be giving space to voices that may not be heard elsewhere.'

Inspiration 'My early days at the Royal Court have been a big influence, working with people like Max Stafford-Clark. Inspiration generally is the people I meet.'

Tanika Gupta

39, writer

Biggest hit Fragile Land, Hampstead theatre, spring 2003.

Coming up Hobson's Choice, at the Young Vic, London, until August 9. Writing sitcom for Jasper Carrott (working title: All About Me), out in autumn 2004, on BBC1.

Theatre is 'Life, which is what I love about it. And it's never the same.'

Theatre isn't 'Easy.'
Inspiration 'Great stories, wherever they come from. Midnight's Children is a novel that inspired me - it came out just as I was coming out of my teens.'