The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is the UK’s biggest national competition for playwriting. It is the search for great new plays and great writers. We look for scripts that are original and unperformed, by writers of any experience.


Chloe Todd Fordham on the Kenyon College Playwright’s Conference

When the Royal Exchange asked me if I’d like to attend the Kenyon College Playwright’s Conference in Gambier, Ohio, my response was a resounding OBVIOUSLY…

Ambassadors announced for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting

Acclaimed British actors, Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp become the first Bruntwood Prize ambassadors Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp known for their roles as Scott…

To everyone who has entered their work for the 2017 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting

Congratulations to each and every one of you.  You have completed a script and sent it out into the world to be experienced by other…

James Fritz- ‘One of the best decisions I ever made’

Deciding to enter the Bruntwood Prize in 2015 was one of the best decisions I ever made. I wasn’t going to. I’d entered twice before:…
I want to read a play that takes me out of my experience. I want to see how the writer illuminates the truth of things that I recognise in a whole new way. 2017 Jury
Plays can be limitless and I want the playwrights to embrace that 2017 Jury
Why now – even if a play is set in another time, it somehow questions who we are now. 2017 Jury
A play that has ideas and questions. A play that has a point of enquiry. Tells us things we don’t know yet – that is exploring something unknown and the surprise and complex truth of that. 2017 Jury
A play that has specificity and rigour. I want to feel something. 2017 Jury
A play that has a sense of humour – even if it’s dark and serious – not totally plumbing the depths of despair – not plays that are resigned, despairing and whinging. There is something beautiful about laughing collectively in a space. 2017 Jury
I want to read a play that makes me realise that I have been doing it wrong – immediately makes you realise you need a broader definition of what a play could be. 2017 Jury
A play that is very clear about why I have got to be in the same room and can only be done in the theatre – crying out to be in the same room. 2017 Jury
When I write, I am not giving a lecture, I am speculating on behaviour. Sometimes this is dangerous but it should be. 2017 Jury
I want to be entertained! I want to be grabbed and taken on a journey. 2017 Jury
I want a play that excites me emotionally and intellectually – that I want to talk about for hours and days afterwards – that haunts me. 2017 Jury
I want to listen to a voice that we haven’t heard before – that is of the here and now – theatre is an artform of the now. 2017 Jury
The written word