Sphinx Theatre Company is delighted to announce Sphinx 30, a year-long programme celebrating Sphinx Theatre’s 30th anniversary. Sphinx 30 will be launched with the pilot of Sphinx Lab, a brand new writers’ development programme for female playwrights and will conclude with a series of showcase events as a celebration of 30 years of Sphinx Theatre. Partners on Sphinx 30 are 15 of the UK’s leading theatres, with full details of theatre partnerships shortly to be announced

As stage one of Sphinx’s 30th anniversary programme, Sphinx 30 is delighted to be able to offer ten £1000 seed commissions to emerging or mid-career female playwrights based in the UK via an open call.

Each selected Sphinx 30 playwright will take part in the Sphinx Lab, a pilot writers’ programme for female playwrights which has been designed by Sphinx’s Literary Director, inspired by her work at Yale School of Drama, one of the world’s leading playwriting programmes, and by the WP (Women’s Project) Lab in New York.

The Lab is also informed by Sphinx’s recent year long research project and the major Women in Theatre Forum which was run in partnership with The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Equity, ERA 50:50, University Women in the Arts, Stage Directors UK, Black Womxn in Theatre, The Stage, the December Group and Trafalgar Studios (with the report from the Forum forthcoming).

The Sphinx Lab will offer advice from leading female playwrights, advice from the industry, craft and business skills, and a chance to write a play and receive guidance on your work, with the aim to equip female playwrights with information, skills and dramaturgy on their work to support their careers.

Playwrights will receive a £1000 seed commission to write the new play, written for the main stage, as part of Sphinx 30’s anniversary, with the opportunity for the play to be showcased and published, showcasing some of the best female playwriting talent in the UK as part of the anniversary, and with the opportunity to pitch for more funding at the end of the year for a full commission.

Partners on Sphinx 30 are 15 of the UK’s leading theatres, with full details of theatre partnerships shortly to be announced.

The Lab will run from September 2020 (please note this date may be delayed due to the coronavirus crisis) with four all-day Lab sessions which will take place in hub theatres across the UK or online, and will finish with a period of mentoring before the showcases, which will take place in 2021.

Criteria 

• Open to emerging or mid-career female playwrights

Deadline

15th June 2020 at midnight.

Please note: For the purposes of the Sphinx Lab, emerging is defined as a playwright who is at the beginning of their career, this may include (but does not need to include) workshops, readings and winning competitions but the playwright has not yet had a full production of more than two weeks. Mid-career is defined as writers who have had full productions of more than two weeks.

https://sphinxtheatre.co.uk/Sphinx-30/