Writer
Libby’s development as a writer has included script, prose and criticism. She was accepted to The Writing Squad for promising writers in the North in 2018, receiving creative mentorship from Steve Dearden and Emma Adams. She staged her play BARRED at Greater Manchester Fringe in 2019, and joined The Royal Exchange’s Critics Scheme that year to develop her creative and dramaturgical voice.
Interstellar travel
Libby started focusing on sci-fi and speculative work in 2020 (given the state of the world, she figured she might as well write something completely ridiculous). What came out of that was FAR OUT, the queer sci-fi comedy play she staged with L Squared Theatre (her collaborative endeavour with director Lauren Lambert Moore). The play follows three space adventurers, Jed, Ellis and Alma, in the year 2150 as they search for a new planet for the human race. They developed the play through Omnibus Theatre’s ‘Engine Room’, and a 2-day R&D at New Diorama Broadgate.
FAR OUT was on at VAULT London 2023 (Feb 14-18), where it was nominated for the Origins Award and subsequently programmed for Omnibus Theatre’s 96 Festival.
What's next?
In March 2024, Libby received DYCP funding from Arts Council England to develop her creative practice. Over the next year, she is receiving mentorship from Granta winner Saba Sams, playwright Tim Foley and ASMR researcher Dr Giulia Poeria. She has already been shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship 2024 for one of her stories. She plans to put together a collection, and have another full-length play (about sapphic time-traveling pirates) completed by the end of the year.