Latest news

Bruntwood launch the second Bruntwood Playwriting Competition

The second Bruntwood Playwriting Competition was launched on 12th March at a star studded event at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre.

Actress and competition judge Brenda Blethyn helped fellow judges Bruntwood Chairman, Michael Oglesby and the Royal Exchange’s Artistic Director, Greg Hersov launch the competition, along with last years winning playwrights, Ben Musgrave, Duncan Macmillan and Phil Porter.

The competition is off to a great start with a prestigious judging panel in place. This year, Brenda, Mike and Greg will be joined on the judging panel by Actor Michael Sheen, playwright Roy Williams and film director Roger Mitchell. The judging panel will be chaired by actor Richard Wilson.

The first Bruntwood Playwriting competition took place in 2005, with the aim of encouraging new writing and discovering fresh playwriting talent. It proved to be a great success; attracting 2000 scripts and saw the top three winning entries receive full productions at the Royal Exchange as well as major cash prizes. The winning plays by Ben Musgrave and Duncan Macmillan (Pretend You Have Big Buildings and Monster) also featured in the Manchester International Festival.

This year, there is an equally desirable prize for aspiring playwrights and the winning writers will be rewarded with a share in a £40,000 prize fund and have their work considered for production by the Royal Exchange. In addition, leading UK independent theatre publishers, Nick Hern Books, will publish the winning plays that receive a production at the Exchange.

Like 2005, the second competition is open to writers of all experience aged 18 and over throughout the UK and Ireland, and as it is anonymous it allows both novices and professionals to compete alongside each other. It gives a whole range of gifted people the opportunity to have their writing recognised, and embraced.

Given 2005’s success, we’re really excited about the competition and the prospect of helping launch new writing talent in the UK. For more information visit www.writeaplay.co.uk