Newcastle's leading amateur dramatic society, The People's Theatre, runs a biennial competition for a new play, The People's Play. Submissions for the 2014 award are open until 7th April.
The competition aims to discover and develop new writers for theatre and is only open to writers who have not yet received a full professional production of their work on the stage. Winning the People’s Play Award is a great first step to establishing a career as a professional writer.
Former winners who have gone on to write professionally include Alison Carr, Peter Straughan (who won a BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), and Carina Rodney.
The award is only open to writers who live and work within the Arts Council England North East region (Tyne and Wear, Northumberland, Tees Valley and County Durham). Writers may only enter one script for the award. The script must be for a new play that has not been staged in any theatre, amateur or professional.
They are looking for plays with small casts with running times of around two hours. The play should be suited for a simple production in a studio theatre and should not involve complex sets or effects.
Full details can be found on the New Writing North web site.