Tour the Writer

Posted on: May 19th, 2023 by ppEditor

Tour the Writer is a multi-year writer development programme, established by Paines Plough in partnership with leading theatres across the country.

This project exists to create a local, regional and national network of writers and storytellers, whilst offering ongoing support, development and mentoring from Paines Plough and our partner venues.

Our partner venues are:

The project kicked off in 2023 with Open Writer’s Labs at each venue, giving budding writers the opportunity to meet the team, connect with each other, and begin their development journey. This was followed by one-to-one meetings between venues and writers (called ‘Talk to Us’), and two online masterclasses on ‘Structure’ and ‘Demystifying the Industry’, with panellists Katie Posner, Gillian Greer, Nathan Queeley-Dennis, Chloë Moss, Aisha Zia, Mike Bartlett and Charlie Josephine.


Year Two

2024 marked Year 2 of the project, taking 72 mentored writers to continue their journey and to develop their ideas with our partner organisations and dramaturgs.

Bradford:
Daniel Bernard, Carolyn Eden, Claire Eden, Amber Hafren, Michael James, Nick Maynard, Marina Poppa, John Quinn, Richard D Rhodes, Jan Ruppe-Rahman, Tahir Shah, Laura Strickland, Marie Williamson.

Colchester (Mercury Playwrights in association with Tour the Writer):
Emma Bernard, Sue Bevan, Tassa Deparis, Daniel Hallisey, Giannini Hemmings, Eleanor Hyde, Ed Ismail, Fiona Padfield, Ben SantaMaria, Benjamin Wilkinson.

Coventry (Belgrade Theatre):
Sara Amanda, Linzi Doyle, Matthew Gabrielli, Sam Holley-Horseman, Paul Tafaro, Alisha Kadir, Ryan Leder, Katy Lynam, Roe McDonnell.

Cumbria (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick):
Sophia Atcha, Nina Berry, Beth Broomby, Lekhani Chirwa, Eireann Devlin, Daneka Etchells, Karen Featherstone, Grace Kirby, Eve Pereira, Rachel Price, Hannah Roze-Lewis, Sally Ann Staunton, Hannah Stratton.

Landmark Theatres – North Devon & Peterborough:
Michele Borsten, Charlie Essayan, Lore Green, Lori Hilson, Kayleigh Mai Hinsley, Carron Holmes, Nayomie James, Selina Keedwell, Louise Lecky-Thompson, Susan Luciani, Jessy Roberts, Nathan Rodney-Jones, Lucy Roslyn, Anne Rouse, Ysella Sims, Emily Swettenham, Sam Turton.

Plymouth (Theatre Royal Plymouth):
Hattie Collins, Jon Nash, Roni Neale, Rosie Race, Fynn Roberts, Jane Spurr.

The Tour the Writer Year 2 mentored writers activity is generously supported by the Noel Coward Foundation.

The Women’s Prize for Playwriting

Posted on: April 7th, 2021 by ppAdmin

The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2025

Submissions will open for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2025 on Monday 13 January and close on Tuesday 22 April 2025.

The First Prize will be £20,000: the biggest prize fund so far, and with Sheffield Theatres coming on board as the new Theatre Partner. Created with Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, Elizabeth Newman, this partnership will mean that Sheffield Theatres has the first right of refusal to co-produce the world premiere of the prize’s winning play, alongside Ellie Keel Productions and Paines Plough.

The 2025 Judging Panel will be chaired by the incoming Director and Co-Chief Executive of the National Theatre, Indhu Rubasingham, with the panel also including:

Click here to visit the Women’s Prize for Playwriting’s website and find out more.

An Introduction for Writers

Posted on: March 3rd, 2021 by ppEditor

Hello writers!

Thank you for reading about how we want to work with you and support you as a national theatre company of new writing. This is an introduction to our values and practice.

At Paines Plough our main goal is to make our writer development work as wide in its geographical reach as the productions we tour across the UK and Ireland. We want to ensure that writers everywhere have access and opportunity to be discovered, developed and produced. We will do this by continually investing in different ways of reaching, supporting and working with you.

We promote the idea that a writer can take many forms; creating work in many different ways and coming from a wide range of backgrounds. We also have an active agenda in the discovery and development of under-represented writers for the theatre.

Our approach to is be bespoke to your voice and process; allowing you to be your best self; whatever that means to you. As part of this, we constantly innovate how we work with writers including challenging inherited systems, ensuring we listen to how you want to be developed, communicated with, and supported by us. If there is more we can be doing, we want you to let us know.

We will regularly post opportunities on our website for ways you can get involved and we look forward to meeting you!

Writers on Attachment

Posted on: January 28th, 2021 by ppAdmin

Playwright Fellowship

Our Playwright Fellowship is awarded annually to a writer of exceptional promise. The Fellowship invites the writer to spend nine months on attachment to Paines Plough, where we design a bespoke programme to tailor the attachment to their specific needs, ambitions and circumstances.

The Fellow receives a bursary and a desk at Paines Plough, as well as mentorship from our Artistic Directors and Team PP.

We offer the writers new and interesting experiences to develop their craft, like participating in Sala Beckett’s annual Obrador d’estiu in Barcelona, immersing themselves in international work at the Dublin Theatre Festival and Edinburgh International Festival, and meeting some of their playwright heroes.