Airplays is a brand new collaboration between BBC Radio Leeds and West Yorkshire Playhouse in association with Leeds College of Music that puts radio drama centre stage.

They’re looking for writers of all backgrounds and all levels of experience to send ideas for original 15 minute-long fictional radio plays. The theme is a celebration of the 70^th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush in 1948. Plays will be produced by West Yorkshire Playhouse, performed live to an audience at Leeds College of Music and recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio Leeds as part of the first ever Airplays event in October 2018.

Process

Ideas will be chosen by a panel made up of representatives from the BBC, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds College of Music and members of the Playhouse’s Theatre of Sanctuary programme for refugee and asylum seekers.

All proposals will be read by West Yorkshire Playhouse’s experienced script reading team who will create a shortlist for the panel. The panel will select four proposals that will go on to be developed into full, 15 minute-long plays.

Each writer will be paid a fee of £1000 to develop their idea into a short play.

The four writers will develop their proposals into short plays over the course of five months, working closely with West Yorkshire Playhouse’s Furnace artistic development programme and BBC Writers Room.

This development process will include a full day working with actors and with musicians from Leeds College of Music to test their dialogue out and redraft.

The four plays will be produced by West Yorkshire Playhouse and presented at Leeds College of Music in October 2018.

Deadline

Thursday May 10^th 2018 at 6pm.

For more information on how to send a proposal and for full terms and conditions, click here.