Guest Post: 'How Do We Find The Next Generation Of Playwrights?': Young Writers Associate Beth Flintoff On The Royal Court's Nationwide Young Playwrights Award
"Being with young writers is a lesson in courage"
The Young Playwrights Award is a free, open-access competition for any teenager in the UK interested in writing a play. Spearheaded by Beth Flintoff, Associate Playwright and Young Writers Associate at the Royal Court Theatre, it challenges the lack of playwriting in the school curriculum by combining free creative support with an open-access competition.
The competition is split into two age groups: 13–15 and 16–18. The initiative provides comprehensive learning resources, including playwriting club guides and instructional videos, aiming to make theatre writing accessible to everyone Winning playwrights see their scripts professionally performed by actors and directors, and published in an anthology by Nick Hern Books. The six winning plays will also be performed as rehearsed readings at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from 9-11 July.
In this guest post for BroadwayWorld, Beth talks about giving young playwrights the opportunity and encouragement to create something magic.
How do we find the next generation of playwrights? In the current climate of cuts to the arts and dire warnings about the state of arts education in schools, this week is a joyous one at the Royal Court. It’s when we rehearse and perform the six winning plays of the Royal Court Young Playwrights Award, now in its second year. As I write this, twelve professional actors are ensconced in a tech rehearsal in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs for Fruit, by 15 year old Lucy Leggatt, which portrays the experience of an eating disorder through the eyes of a 17th century teenage girl.
Any teenager living in the UK was eligible to send us a play during a submissions window in the spring. During the months before, we travelled up and down the country, giving free workshops in villages halls, studios and school classrooms. I spent a wonderful, chilly January day with the writing organisation Moniack Mhor in Inverness, working with two small groups of committed, inventive young people who wrote fluently and copiously in exercise books and on bits of paper.
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This was our first year of opening the prize up to young people in the UK, following last year’s inaugural competition focussed on London writers. As we watched the plays come in, we found little notes in the optional comments box. ‘I’ve never written a play before,’ wrote one, ‘so sorry if this is bad.’ (Reader, it was not!). I was happy to see one writer reference the workshop in Inverness – ‘it helped me realise how fun and enjoyable playwriting is’. Across two intense weeks, our team of readers worked their way through all the plays, sending personal feedback to every one, before narrowing it down to a shortlist.
For the second year running, I find myself genuinely thrilled by the quality of the writing by these artists. From beautiful, delicate portrayals of fading friendships, to boisterous, noisy comedies, alongside some stunning depictions of war and grief, many of their words will stay with me for years to come.
As artists, I think we learn fear. The more plays we write, the more we know what failure tastes like. But being with young writers is a lesson in courage: you want to have an imaginary boyfriend in a locker demanding to be fed with fruit? Sure! Set an entire play on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean? Why not?
Yesterday afternoon the company rehearsed Bus Stop of Strangers by Thomas Mossman. Eighteen-year-old Thomas watched actors Tom Peters and Dominic Semwanga explore his script: a nuanced, intensely uncomfortable conversation between a mixed-race teenager and his white father, fresh from a Far-Right rally, draped in an England flag. The atmosphere in the rehearsal room was electric. Afterwards I asked him how he felt. "Getting to watch performers bring my work to life was nothing short of incredible!" He said, "seeing such passion, care and dedication put into my words was so rewarding."
At the moment it’s perfectly possible to experience an entire British school education without ever writing a script, or even knowing that the job of playwright exists. We’re determined to change that. Next year we’ll carry on reaching out to young people across the UK, encouraging them to give it a go, and tell their story.
Submissions for next year's award will be opening in early 2027.
For more information about The Royal Court's Nationwide Young Playwrights Award click here.
Photo Credit: Ian Legge
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