South Shields Customs House is offering a major opportunity for playwrights aged 17 to 25 as part of its fourth Takeover Festival.
The Festival, which is planned, promoted and delivered by young people from South Tyneside and the wider region, developing and showcasing the work of their peers, is to appoint the Customs House’s first ever Young Writer in Residence, who will receive a programme of mentoring delivered by Laura Turner (a professional writer who has worked with BBC EastEnders, E20, Almeida Theatre, Associate Writer Petersfield Shakespeare Festival, Chapterhouse Theatre Company), which will lead to the production of a play which will be performed in the main house as the final event of the Festival on Friday 1 June.
The play will be directed by Jake Smith, a director from the North East, who is Resident Director at The Almeida Theatre in Islington under the National Theatre Directors Programme, and will be performed by eight young actors from the area.
Rehearsals will take place in a five-day residency at The Customs House during the festival. There will also be a preview reading of the play at The Customs House during The WRITE Festival on 24 May at 7:00. The play will transfer to Alphabetti Theatre on Saturday 17 June as part of Newcastle’s first Youth Fringe Festival.
Anyone between the ages of 17 and 25 who is interested in taking part should e-mail Fiona Martin at the Customs House with the following details:
- Name
- Date of birth
- Brief biography
- Title and brief synopsis of the play
- A 15-minute extract
The deadline for submissions is Monday 26 March 2019.