Entries Open For 2021 ETPEP Playwriting Award

Finborough Theatre and ETPEP Award 2021 announce that entries are open for this year's playwriting prize until Friday, 30 April 2021 at 11pm.

The ETPEP Award 2021 is a playwriting prize for new UK playwrights who work or have worked in the theatre industry, run by the Finborough Theatre in association with the Experienced Theatre Practitioners Early Playwriting Trust (ETPEP).

The Award's purpose is to find and nurture a playwright who has worked in theatre for two years or more (but not in a literary department setting or as a paid script reader), who is looking to further their ambitions and skill in the art and craft of playwriting.

The ETPEP Award 2021 is open to UK residents of any age who have not had a play professionally produced, and who have worked front of house, in administrative roles, on stage, backstage, lighting, design etc. or in a creative capacity in theatre for at least two years, either now or in the past.

The award is intended to target and encourage those who are currently working or have worked in theatre but who are new to playwriting, and therefore, the Award is not open to those who have worked in any capacity in a literary department, a literary agency, theatre critics, or those who ever have undertaken paid script reading work.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is not an award for playwrights. It is an award for those who work or who have worked in theatre IN SOME OTHER capacity who also write plays.

We are looking for a play of substance which contributes in some way to our understanding of the human condition or experience, from a writer with potential to enhance our political and social awareness.

The award will be judged completely anonymously until the very final shortlist and interview stage, and brief feedback will be provided on every entry.

The winner will receive a prize of £6,000, a development relationship with the Finborough Theatre including one-to-one dramaturgy with Finborough Theatre Artistic Director and playwright Neil McPherson; a rehearsal workshop with actors and a director to develop the play; and a staged reading performance of the winning play either at the Finborough Theatre, London, pandemic permitting, or online; and publication by Salamander Street, independent publisher of theatre, performance and live art.

There will be ten runner-up prizes of £300 each.

The judges for the 2021 Award will include Artistic Director of the Finborough Theatre and playwright Neil McPherson; Literary Manager of the Finborough Theatre and playwright Sue Healy; actor Oliver Ford Davies; actor, playwright and activist Athena Stevens; and Clive Webster of the Experienced Theatre Practitioners Early Playwriting Trust, which founded the award. More judges will be announced shortly.

Before entering you should study the full submission guidelines, available at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk

The deadline for scripts is Friday, 30 April 2021 at 11.00pm.