The inaugural North East Playwriting Award is presented by Live Theatre in partnership with The Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust. This brand new venture seeks to award commissions to two playwrights who are either from or based in the North East of England. The commissioned plays will then be produced for our stage.

There are two playwriting awards on offer.

• The main award will offer the winning playwright a full-length commission fee of £10,000 (over 70 minutes) and a commitment to produce their play at Live Theatre.
• The second award will be exclusively for young people aged 16 to 25. This will be a commission fee of £7,000 (under 70 minutes) and a commitment to develop the play at Live Theatre.

Guideline

• These awards are open to writers who are either from or currently living in the North East of England.
• The main award is open to anyone aged 16 and above.
• The second award (Youth award) is exclusively for writers aged 16 to 25.
• Both awards are open to writers at any level of experience. No minimum or maximum level of experience is required.
• Therefore, to apply for the award they are happy to accept either a full play (early drafts are fine), or a detailed treatment of the play you want to write (approximately 10 pages) and a sample of your script writing. They recognise that the play you send in will most likely not be fully developed yet. Development of the script will be part of the process offered to the winning plays
• They are not looking for adaptations, reimaginings, dance or circus work.
• The award selection process is completely anonymous. They ask that any names or reference to the writer be removed from the script itself so that readers remain impartial during the process. Only once the final shortlist has been decided will the identity of the remaining writers be made public. All unsuccessful writers will receive feedback on their scripts at this point (unless they have opted out).

Deadline

Mon 7 August 2023
Shortlist Announced Mon 15 January 2024
Prize winners announced Mon 26 February 2024