Michael Smith by Morgan Westwood-Cooke

A chance feature on the local news connects the dots a lonely schoolteacher has left out of place for years. A brilliant and illuminating study of how family trauma burrows deep and the ways we find to cope.

This radio play/monologue, written by Morgan Westwood-Cooke, and read by actress Stacey Sampson, shines a light on the strength and fragility of what makes us human, even when we feel incomplete.

Michael Smith started life in our Mastering Monologues masterclass with John Rwoth-Omack.

Michael Smith written by Morgan Westwood-Cooke
Read by Stacey Sampson
Editing support by Vicky Morris
A Hive Creatives project

It sounds incredible! Thank you! The process has been fantastic and has really boosted my confidence as a writer. It’s wonderful to hear something you’ve written treated with such care and produced to such a high standard.

Morgan Westwood-Cooke is an English literature postgraduate student at the University of Sheffield. She’s been an avid writer for as long as she can remember. She was recently part of Hive’s Fictioneers programme and has been commissioned through the Streets Unmasked project to write a piece for a forthcoming podcast.

Stacey Sampson is an actor, writer and facilitator born and bred in Rotherham. She has worked in theatre, film and television for twenty years, and is known for her role as Jennifer in Channel 4’s This Is England series (’88 and ’90). Stacey is an Associate Artist with Third Angel and several other companies and her plays have toured nationally to theatres and non-traditional spaces. She also specialises in collaborative writing and regularly works with schools, libraries, young offender programmes, mental health and homelessness organisations to create bespoke scripts and performances. Her children’s fiction has won the Mslexia Novel Competition, a Northern Writers’ Award and the Arvon Award.