The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, is the home of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting since its inception in 2005. Over 15 years we have been introduced to nearly 16,000 plays. We have been honoured to bring to life 24 winning plays to share with our audiences and seen countless more develop outside our own four walls.

The Bruntwood Prize has always been about so much more than the winning plays. Through its partnership with the Royal Exchange Theatre, the Prize strives to reach out to anyone and everyone to support them to explore their creativity, find their voice and tell their story. With nearly 200 premieres in its archive and a string of awards, the Royal Exchange Theatre continues to cement its place as a centre of excellence for new writing and support for playwrights. Through this website, the team at the Royal Exchange has created live-stream workshops which have been viewed over 30,000 times and our free online content reaches over 3000 visitors a month. We want to keep reaching out to support you.

As we had to close the Royal Exchange Theatre to ensure the safety of our audiences, artists and staff, we were about to open a new play by Winsome Pinnock whose live-stream workshop on this website was one of the highlights of our series last year. We desperately want to continue to support new writing, to bring new stories to our amazing audiences, to support playwrights to strive to fulfil the ambition of their work. However, the Royal Exchange is a registered charity and the majority of our income created by the Theatre comes from ticket sales. Suspending all performances makes maintaining business virtually impossible.

The Royal Exchange has been the voice of the Bruntwood Prize and at the heart of Manchester for over 40 years. We need to safeguard the future of this theatre. We ask, if possible, that you consider making a small donation to support its future as a home of playwriting. No matter how big or small, we would be incredibly grateful. We know this is a big ask and that everything is uncertain. If you can donate, please do. If you can’t donate right now, please help us by sharing our message.

https://www.royalexchange.co.uk/we-need-your-support