Original Theatre Company Launches Brand-New Originals Playwriting Award

Original Theatre Company today launches a new playwrighting prize - the Originals Playwriting Award. Aimed at emerging and early career playwrights, the submissions window opens today, accepting new works from writers across the UK, open to anyone above the age of 18.

Judged by a panel of acclaimed industry experts - to be announced, the winner of the Award will receive a cash prize of £7,000, with three further runners up receiving £2,000 each. Launched in collaboration with Riverside Studios, each of the four plays will receive a script-in-hand performance at the venue, which will additionally be filmed and streamed live by North South.

Steven Atkinson, Digital Producer for Original Theatre and former co-founder of HighTide said today, "As theatre rebuilds post pandemic it's vital to continue to keep innovating with production opportunities for diverse new voices, to support their development and showcase their talent. Following our recent Critic's Circle Award for Exceptional Theatre Making During Lockdown, this award deepens Original Theatre's commitment to making exceptional theatre available to audiences everywhere."

The submissions window will remain open until 10am on 9 May, and plays can be submitted via the Original Theatre Company website: https://bit.ly/Originals2022Award.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The terms and conditions for the prize are as follows:

• The submitted play should not have been previously produced/performed in any capacity.
• The play should be written for four actors or less; and no longer than 70 minutes in performance length.
• The award is open to those at the outset of professional playwrighting career and believe that this award would be transformative.

All plays submitted that meet the entry requirements will be considered by an expert panel of readers managed by Original Theatre. There is an extensive process to the reading before creating the longlist of 25. The longlist will be considered in full by a further panel, including Artistic Director of Original Theatre, who will shortlist 10 for consideration by the Judges. The Judges will award the Originals Playwriting Award 2022 to one winning play, and three will be awarded the Originals Playwriting Award 2022 - runner-up.

Original Theatre Company

Operating and touring since 2004 the Original Theatre Company has toured extensively all over the UK and since 2020 have launched Original Theatre Online, producing a number of acclaimed online productions.

Recent online productions include Birdsong, Apollo 13: The Dark Side of the Moon, The Haunting of Alice Bowles, Barnes' People, A Splinter of Ice with live streamings of Being Mr Wickham, A Cold Supper Behind Harrods, The System into the Night, and The Red.

Recent stage productions include The Hound of the Baskervilles, A Splinter of Ice, The Croft, Sarah Waters' The Night Watch, Stephen Jeffreys' Valued Friends (co-production with Rose Theatre Kingston), Torben Betts' Caroline's Kitchen (originally Monogamy), Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark, Torben Betts' Invincible, Emlyn Williams' Night Must Fall, Terence Rattigan's Flare Path, and the award-winning tours of Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong adapted by Rachel Wagstaff.

Other productions include Three Men in a Boat (a co-production with the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, 2014 & 2015), the 50th anniversary production of Sir Peter Shaffer's The Private Ear and The Public Eye, Our Country's Good, See How They Run, Twelfth Night, Dancing at Lughnasa, Shakespeare's R&J, Vincent in Brixton, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, and The Madness of George III - starring the late, great Simon Ward, Journey's End.

www.originaltheatreonline.com

www.originaltheatre.com

Twitter: @OriginalTheatre

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