THE Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse’s festival of new writing, Everyword, kicks off on Monday with its inaugural lecture by artistic director Gemma Bodinetz.

The week-long event features readings, workshops and work-in-progress performances designed to showcase new work and encourage local writers.

Highlights include the chance to step inside the rehearsal room of the first play by Joe Ward Munrow, pictured, Held, which was performed as a rehearsed reading in last year’s festival.

It will debut in the Playhouse Studio in November, starring Liverpool actors Pauline Daniels and Alan Stocks.

A graduate of the Everyman & Playhouse’s Young Writers scheme, Munrow was commissioned to write the play by the theatres’ former literary manager Suzanne Bell.

The piece is inspired by the John Moores University graduate’s own experiences of growing up with a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s.

“She was really young when she was diagnosed and so was I so although she got progressively worse I didn’t have the experience of having someone there and disappear, which is so much more painful,” says Munrow, 27, who is originally from London. “The play is about two brothers dealing with their mother’s dementia. It explores their different points of view and the whole gamut of feelings you experience when people have dementia. Obviously there’s sadness and anger but there are also moments of lightness and humour that you need to get through it.”

Munrow will present a reading of another, currently untitled project at Everyword. Looking at the nature of evil and evil acts, it will be presented alongside pieces by Luke Barnes and James Harker. All three writers are currently attached to the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse.

EVERYWORD is at the Liverpool Playhouse from October 22-27. Full listings at www.everymanplayhouse.com. Held runs from November 8 to December 1.