January 2014

10th January

The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award

Radio Drama North in conjunction with BBC writersroom has launched theAlfred Bradley Bursary Award 2013-14. The Award was established in 1992 to commemorate the life and work of Alfred Bradley, the distinguished BBC Radio Drama Producer. Previous winners include Lee Hall, Peter Straughan and Cat Jones.

The aim of the Award is to encourage new radio drama writing in the North of England. The award winner will be offered a £5,000 writing bursary, the chance of a Radio 4 afternoon drama commission and a 12 month mentorship with a Radio Drama producer.

What we’re looking for:

Original, compelling and imaginative storytelling, in a script suitable for broadcast in the Radio 4 afternoon drama slot
(2.15pm weekdays or listen again on the programme pages.)

We invite writers to submit an original 44 minute Radio 4 drama script.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunities/alfred-bradley-bursary-award-2013-2014

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10th january

TLW Lexicon – Play and short story competition

Write a play or a short story that includes the title and something about a book that was first published prior to 1930. Your work can be set in any time period and can be in any genre, but must not simply be a re-working of the original plot of the chosen book. We are looking for creative fictional encounters with physical copies of the book itself, unexpectedly real characters that were always believed to be a product of the original author’s imagination, unpredictable events triggered by a well-known title, or anything your creativity can conjure.

Your entry can be in the form of a short story or a short play.

• Plays must run to no longer than 20 minutes, and have a cast of no more than five actors.
• Short stories must be no longer than 3500 words.

We will start accepting entries on the 1st November, and stop at midnight GMT on the 10th January 2014. Any entries received after then will not be eligible for consideration.

SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY HERE

Finalists will be notified on or before the 1st March 2014, and will receive two day-tickets each to the festival, valid for the day that their entry will be performed.

All entries will be individually read and assessed, and the final selection of four stories and four plays will be chosen by an independent panel of judges.

The winning selection will be performed as a rehearsed reading on one of the stages at TLW LEXiCON in Faversham throughout the weekend of the festival. An overall best play and best short story will be selected at the end of the festival, and will be presented with a certificate and a prize that will be announced nearer the time.

Submission Requirements

• All submissions must be entirely your own work.
• You may submit one play, one story, or one of each. You may not submit more than one story or more than one play.
• There is a submission fee of £3 for every entry.
• Entries may not have won any previous competition.
• Your work must be suitable for a general audience as TLW LEXiCON is a family event.
• Submission of an entry to the competition is subject to the Competition Submissions Terms and Conditions.

If you have any queries about this competition, please email us at tlwlexicon@thelacunaworks.co.uk and we will try to answer them as best we can.

http://tlwlexicon.com/playandshortcomp.html

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13th January

247 Theatre Festival

24:7 makes no particular demands on theme or style. All we ask is that submissions are original works, in the English language, never performed before and 40-60 minutes long.

The Festival venues are all non-theatre spaces so our technical facilities are limited and the unique rotating performance times in our schedule mean that productions get just 15 minutes to set up and 15 minutes to clear the stage. There is a £27 fee to submit a script (£30 if you send us your submission on paper), which is used to meet the administrative costs of the process.

http://www.247theatrefestival.co.uk/get-involved/

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17th January

15 minute play for Claremorris Drama Festival – Ireland

Entries must be made on the official form. You can download it here.

Two properly formatted copies of the script must accompany the application. The play can not have been previously performed or published.

The entry fee for submitting your script for consideration is €10 (There is no admission charge to see the plays during the Fringe.)

You can pay for your entry online using paypal here: 

There will be a first prize of €500 for the writer of the best play with the runner-up getting €250.

The Fringe will be held from April 4th to 11th – with two plays each night – that’s a total of sixteen plays.

Where is it on?

The venue is The Dalton Inn Hotel in the centre of the town, adjacent to the Town Hall.

Queries or other correspondence can be emailed to:fringe@claremorrisdramafestival.com

http://claremorrisdramafestival.com/

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24th January

Photo Finish – Salisbury Fringe

Following the success of October’s inaugural Salisbury Fringe festival of new writing, which played to packed houses at pubs, cafes and a gallery in the city, the Fringe team are organising new writing events in unusual spaces throughout the year.

The new Fringe season kicks off with Photogram Open 2014 – a writing opportunity inspired by photography – in the new year. Writers are invited to view the six photograms (viewed here), and use one as inspiration or a trigger for a monologue.

The brief is as follows:

• scripts should be one page of A4 only in 12 point font double spaced
• include a title
• note which photogram it is inspired by
• do not put your name on the script
• maximum 2 submissions per person
• email scripts to Andrew Thackeray thackers1@btinternet.com

http://danceandtheatrewiltshire.net/opportunities/salisbury-fringe-festival-photo-finish-new-writing

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24th January

Public House Challenge – Merseyside Writers

MSI is searching for a small team of four or five writers for a collaborative project entitled “Public House.” To win a place on the team you are asked to submit a short stageplay of maximum ten-minutes/ten-pages involving two strong and memorable characters. It must be a single scene set in one place and within a single time frame. The resulting script will be performed at venue/s in Liverpool by professional actors and directed by a local director at a date or dates to be decided.We are looking for candidates that can show an ability to create strong characters who relate to each other with strong and interesting dialogue. Candidates are asked to carefully read the guidelines.

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27th January

Write Now 5

The Jack Studio Theatre is now taking submissions for their annual New Writing Festival Write Now.

They’re looking for new and previously unperformed plays from writers who have a strong connection to south-east London. One play will be given a full production, and two further selected plays will have a week’s workshop time and readings during the Festival.

The Festival exists to discover the best new playwriting talent and give emerging writers the opportunity to see their work developed and performed.

They’re looking for bold new voices and stories that engage with and reflect the breadth and diversity of contemporary culture and society. We are interested in hearing from first time writers, as well as more established playwrights.

You can find guidelines and an application form on the Jack Studio Theatre website

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31st january

Arundel Festival Theatre Trail

The Arundel Festival Theatre Trail, conceived and presented by Drip Action Theatre Company, is now in its fourteenth year. It performs at the end of August, on each of the Festival’s eight days, eight short plays at eight different venues all over Arundel.

Plays should be between 30 and 40 minutes long, with practicable casting, props and effects. All entries should be submitted to

Drip Action Theatre Trail 2014
c/o SCGIS Ltd
65a High Street
Arundel
West Sussex
BN18 9AJ

Each successful playwright will receive a £150 writer’s fee.

For further information call 01903 885250 or email info@dripaction.co.uk

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunities/arundel-festival-theatre-trail

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31st January

Newsboy

We are looking for short playscripts to be part of a new theatrical sketch show to be performed script in hand in Glasgow in February/March 2014.

We want pieces examining, investigating and challenging the current social and economic situation through events of global, national and local significance, and/or the way in which these stories are represented in the news.

Scripts should be up to 10 minutes in length. This can be one script or several shorter scripts but the total submission should not be more than 10 minutes/15 pages approximately. We’re looking for rapid response writing, exciting theatre which provokes debate. We welcome scripts from writers of all levels of experience and you can write in any style or genre. NEWSBOY needs you!

Please email scripts to newsboyproject@outlook.com by midnight on 31 January 2014.

http://opportunities.creativescotland.com/view.aspx?id=a2a695ca-2d61-4e5c-8d41-14f04eb3ef48

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31st January

Voices 2 – Grin Theatre

There is still a month to get your 15 minute monologues on any subject to us. Voices 1 held late last year was an unprecedented success and as a result pieces have been flooding in already but you have until 31st January 2014 to get yours in.

All we ask is that it is an original piece that has not been actively performed for an audience before. It can be on any subject matter but must just be performable by one person.

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31st January

International Radio Playwriting Competition

There are two first prizes – the best radio play by a writer with English as their first language and the best by a writer with English as their second language. The overall winners will each receive £2000 sterling and a trip to London to see their play being recorded for broadcast on BBC World Service.

We are very happy to run this year’s competition in partnership with Commonwealth Writers again and to welcome our co-producers – The Open University. This has allowed us to introduce another prize – the Georgi Markov prize for the most promising script.

Do take the time to read the rules and tips below before you send us your script. Thank you for entering.

The competition is now open for entries and the closing date is midnight GMT on the 31st January 2014.

To enter, click here

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