Sam Heughan selects emerging RCS talent for Write Start funding
From reimagining film music to performing folk in new ways and developing original work for stage and screen, the 2026 winners of Write Start: The Sam Heughan Creative Commission showcase bold, innovative projects that cross disciplines and push boundaries.
Founded by Outlander star and RCS graduate Sam Heughan, the annual RCS award provides crucial early-stage funding to turn ideas into reality.
Sam, the internationally acclaimed actor, author and philanthropist – who graduated from the BA Acting degree in 2003 – established Write Start in 2021 to encourage students to collaborate and expand their skills and creative ambitions across the art forms of music, drama, dance, production and film.
Write Start followed Sam’s commitment to a ten-year drama scholarship programme at RCS, where he personally funds three annual scholarships for undergraduate students.
Meet the Write Start 2026 winners and runners-up
Bohdan Ilnytskyi has been named this year’s School of Music Write Start winner, receiving £2,500 for Some of Us, a project exploring the role of music as a storytelling force in film.
It investigates how music can function as a dramaturgical driver rather than background accompaniment. Focusing on a small number of scenes, the project centres on two young people facing a life-altering catastrophe.
Through collaboration and experimentation, it explores music as internal monologue, shaping tension and emotional perspective.
Bohdan said: “I’m incredibly grateful to receive the Write Start award. This project allows me to explore music as a narrative voice in film while bringing together my background in classical, jazz and folk traditions. It is also a personal step towards reintroducing Ukrainian instruments like the kobza into contemporary screen composition.”
The £500 School of Music runner-up prize goes to Isla Hallewell and the Mother Tongues: Ancient Folk, a six-piece, multi-genre string ensemble who will explore the intersection of historically informed performance and folk traditions.
They’ll embark on a week-long intensive project in collaboration with the University of Oxford and the Bates Instrument Collection, exploring Baroque and ancient music.
The ensemble members are Eldon Bradfield (viola and violin), Santiago Dil Duarte (cello), Isla Hallewell (harp and voice), Rhona MacDonald (double bass), Thea Wilson (violin and mandolin) and Lee Young (violin and viola).
Fourth-year Bachelor of Music (joint harp and voice) student Isla said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be awarded a runners-up prize in the Write Start competition. The funding will go towards an exciting project that will combine historically informed performance with folk music.
“While the use of historically accurate instruments is relatively common amongst performers of Baroque and Early Western Art Music, the same cannot be said for folk musicians.
“We will learn what Béla Bartók referred to as the ‘musical mother tongue’ of Baroque and Early music and incorporate it into our band’s compositional language.
“By exploring the blurred line that separates folk from ‘Art’ music during this period of history, we aim to expand our skill as interpreters and bring an ancient, authentic sound world to our audiences.”
During their time in Oxford, the ensemble will rehearse, document research and findings, and create new work.
In the School of Stage and Screen, second-year BA Acting student Robert (Robbie) Greenhalgh is this year’s Write Start winner, receiving £2,500 to develop Swim Until You Can’t See Land.
Working with collaborators and fellow second years Shay McFadden and Morven Blackadder, they’ll develop a theatre piece or feature film inspired by the music and legacy of the Scottish band Frightened Rabbit and its lead singer, Scott Hutchison.
Set on Scotland’s East Coast, it tells the story of a young man returning to his seaside hometown after the death of his brother, as he navigates grief, anger and absence. It aims to capture the emotional honesty and humanity of Hutchison’s songwriting, using it as a foundation for a story that explores loss, identity and place.
Robbie said: “My fellow collaborators and I were thrilled to hear we had received the top prize for the annual Write Start competition.
“It’s so affirming to know that your idea is being encouraged by professionals who have worked at the very highest echelons of the industry. We’re hopeful this is the first in a series of steps towards realising a project we feel so passionately about.”
Wren Callender, Kit Allen and Marcela Weltsek-Media, all second-year BA Acting students, receive the Stage and Screen runner-up prize of £500 to create a trailer for the queer, satirical animated TV concept The Boy and the Rat Bastard (BARB), set in a world where women have abandoned men. The project aims to combine sharp social commentary with bold visual storytelling.
The story centres on a naive, good-hearted individual known as The Boy, granted the ability to make his imagination come true. His counterpart, The Rat Bastard, is a lanky, suspicious and strange being of indeterminable age with no known history other than the fact that he and the Boy are roommates.
The series follows these two opposites as they navigate a womanless world, first appearing as a comedy before becoming a darker satirical piece.
Wren said: “We are so grateful to have been selected as the runner up for the Write Start competition. We plan to use the money to fund equipment for animation, host research and development sessions and create a teaser trailer.
“Our goal is to create work for as many of our fellow actors and artists as we can while creating a high-quality and politically relevant story.”
