Following the critically-acclaimed sold-out run of its 2020 winner, Amanda Wilkin’s Shedding a Skin, earlier this year, Soho Theatre is thrilled to announce the return of its Verity Bargate Award. Submissions now open until 21 January 2022. The 40th anniversary winner will be announced in July 2022 and will receive £7,500 in respect of an exclusive option for Soho Theatre to produce their play.

Sponsored by Character 7, the Verity Bargate Award is Soho Theatre’s flagship new writing award with the winning play produced in a full production on the Soho stages.

For almost 50 years, Soho Theatre has championed new writing. Since 1982, the Verity Bargate Award, Soho Theatre’s playwriting award, has uncovered the best new and emerging writers. It has launched the careers of some of Britain’s most established playwrights and screenwriters including Matt Charman (Bridge of Spies), Vicky Jones (Touch at Soho Theatre), Toby Whithouse (Doctor Who) and many, many more. The Award honours Verity Bargate, Soho’s co-founder who passionately championed new writing during her time at the small but hugely influential fringe theatre company, Soho Poly.

The 2020 award was judged by a panel of industry experts including former Soho writers Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Laura Wade, screenwriter Russell T Davies, actress and playwright Lolita Chakrabarti and Character 7’s Stephen Garrett. From a record number of 1493 entries, a longlist of 20 inspiring and fabulously imagined emerging voices, and a shortlist of seven incredibly eclectic new plays, Amanda Wilkin was announced as the winner of the Verity Bargate Award 2020 with her captivating play Shedding A Skin.

ELIGIBILITY

• The Verity Bargate Award is open to any playwright who has had fewer than three professional productions and who lives in the UK or Ireland.
• There are no restrictions on subject matter.
• Musicals and other forms of theatre are welcome but will only be judged on the text that is submitted.
• Applicants must submit one unproduced, unpublished full-length play (no shorter than 60 minutes).
• All submissions must be written for the stage. Screenplays, prose or poetry is not eligible.
• All submissions to the Verity Bargate Award are final and redrafts will not be accepted. Please make sure you are happy with your play before you submit.
• Submissions are limited to one play per writer.
• Submissions should be at least one hour of performance time. This usually means a minimum of 40 pages, though monologues may be shorter.
• Submissions should have one sole author-Co-writers and devised pieces are not eligible.
• Adaptations are not accepted.
• Submissions must be unproduced, with a maximum of three rehearsed readings or equivalent development allowed prior to submission.
• Previous Verity Bargate Award submissions are not accepted.

The Verity Bargate Award is not read anonymously. If you would like your submission to remain anonymous, please ensure your name and contact details do not appear anywhere on your script.

Deadline: 

12noon January 21st 2022

Verity Bargate Award 2022 – Soho Theatre