A really exciting guest speaker this evening, Zoe Lafferty.

Her resulting play The Fear Of Breathing was performed at the Finborough Theatre, was trecently named on the inaugural list of exciting young theatre-makers.

More than 1,300 applications were received from playwrights, directors, producers, designers, composers and choreographers, leading to a shortlist of 250 before the Old Vic 12 was chosen. The theatre’s artistic director Matthew Warchus introduced the scheme to provide emerging artists with paid experience, mentoring and help to develop their careers. It is backed by Ideas Tap and the Peter De Haan Charitable Trust.

Mr Warchus said: “The Old Vic 12 are exceptionally talented people who we hope will benefit from the vitality and creativity of this unique theatre.”

Ms Lafferty, 29, who divides her time between Kew Gardens and a Palestinian refugee camp, crossed from Lebanon into Syria with journalists in 2011 to interview victims of the civil war for her verbatim piece, performed the following year.

Her most recent play, The Siege, with Palestinian company The Freedom Theatre, is to be staged in New York after a UK tour.

She and playwright Anders Lustgarten are also researching a work set in Haiti. She said: “It’s a really rare opportunity for me to spend nine months engaging with a theatre and a building. Much of my research takes me out of the UK, but I’m interested in making shows for an audience here, particularly a London audience as that’s where I was born and raised.”