Northern voices on the global stage.
Manchester is where new writers are found. Where innovative theatre is made. Where international careers are launched.
As Manchester becomes a centre for national governance, the international audience is listening more than ever. The time to focus on northern voices is now.
From 2027, the competition is focusing on writers from the North-West to create The Bruntwood North West Prize.
Open to playwrights who were born, live or work in the North-West of England. All experience levels, backgrounds and subject matter are welcome. And everyone who enters has an equal chance of winning.
Your chance to be heard.
Enter a full length, original and unproduced script. And be judged by prestigious producers, directors and playwrights with complete anonymity.
Full entry criteria and details will be released in Spring 2027.
For winners and runners up, the world is watching. As well as a split of the prize pot, you’ll gain exclusive access to playwright events and seminars and join the Studio community.
The moment to be heard is here.
Prize Winning Productions
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Glee & Me by Stuart Slade -
The Almighty Sometimes by Kendal Fever -
Parliament Square by James Fritz -
Electric Rosary by Tim Foley -
Three Birds by Janice Okho -
Yen by Anna Jordan -
Bird by Katherine Chandler -
The Almighty Sometimes by Kendal Fever -
So Here We Are by Luke Norris
The Writeaplay.co.uk website is our official website for The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.
Each winner enters into a development process with the Royal Exchange Theatre in an endeavour to bring their work to production. It is not guaranteed but we aspire to produce each play and find co-producers to give the plays a longer life and further reach. There have been co-productions with Lyric Hammersmith, Live Theatre, Soho Theatre, Bush Theatre, Orange Tree Theatre, Sherman Theatre, High Tide and the Royal Court Theatre. Work has also gone on to be produced internationally from Australia, USA, Germany, France, to Canada and Sweden.
The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is a genuine endeavour to discover new stories and help playwrights develop their craft, providing everybody and anybody with the opportunity to write a play. It offers a fantastic opportunity to hone your writing skills, whether or not you have written for the stage before (35% of the entrants to the 2017 Prize had never written a play before). In addition to a high proportion of winning and shortlisted plays being produced professionally, each of the top 100 plays receives individual feedback from the Royal Exchange Theatre’s creative team.
The anonymity of the submissions is vital to the ethos of the Prize as it ensures that scripts are judged on individual merit with no preconceptions about the identity of the playwright. Over 100 readers are employed to take the scripts through a rigorous process. These readers are directors, producers, designers, actors, dramaturgs, literary managers, critics, agents and previous winners. Once a script has been selected for the shortlist, it will have been read and championed by 16 different and distinct practitioners which we hope makes for a robust selection process.
It also exists to support playwrights to develop their writing and benefit from other opportunities. It contains workshops with some of the country’s leading theatre practitioners, news on other opportunities and prizes as well as information on how to enter the Prize, history of the Prize and a range of other resources.