Off the Page is an opportunity for you as a playwright to hear you play read aloud by professional actors. It aims to give playwrights the chance to work through a creative problem in their play with the guidance of an experienced writer in the room.

The sessions will be facilitated by Playwrights’ Studio Associate Playwright, Douglas Maxwell. In the session, you will have a chance to hear your full play read. Following the reading, there will be some time to discuss your work with the actors and with Douglas. This will be a chance to delve into specific areas of your play and explore possible paths forward for its development.

The selected playwrights will receive a fee to participate in the session of £87.50 for their half day. Travel expenses to the cost of standard rail fares will also be reimbursed.

Off the Page sessions will take place over the week commencing Monday 17th June 2024.

What plays are eligible?

• Plays by writers who are based in Scotland
• Plays which are complete to first draft stage, typically 40 pages or more
• Plays that have not been produced
• Plays for live performance (not TV, film or radio plays)
• Plays of all genre except musicals
• Plays by writers who have not otherwise received support from Playwrights’ Studio in the past calendar year

Please note:

• We are only able to consider one play per writer
• Whilst having heard an earlier draft does not make a play ineligible, we will prioritise work that has not yet received any development support
• We accept submissions in English, Scots, Gaelic or BSL

See our full statement on access and equality.

As part of the application, we ask you to tell us about yourself and your writing career to date, why you would like to explore this play through this project, and the particular creative problem you would like to explore while participating. For example, it may be that there’s a particular character, exchange or chunk of your play that you’re not certain works, or you might never have heard your work read by actors before.

The actors will be a diverse company who will be working across the Off the Page plays over the course of the week, so whilst we will endeavour to meet your casting requirements, they may not all match the casting of your characters. We’ll endeavour to facilitate work on plays with any number of characters, but for this opportunity, will be able to facilitate plays that require six or less actors.

We also ask that you upload the full play you wish to submit for consideration.

For more information and to apply: Off the Page (jotform.com)