The Student Guide to Writing: Playwriting launches next month as the first in a series of writing competitions targeted at students.
The initiative will see lesson plans on how to write a play available to schools and Universities; these will be written by Steve Winter, co-founder of the Old Vic New Voices 24 Hour Plays, Rob Drummer, the Bush Theatre’s Associate Dramaturg, John Yorke, creator of the BBC Writers Academy, and Ola Animashawun, founder of the Royal Court Theatre’s young writers’ programme amongst others.
Five students submitting work to the competition after following the lessons will be selected to attend a playwriting bootcamp and could see their work published by Oberon Books.
The group behind The Student Guide to Writing: Playwriting is composed of The new MA Dramatic Writing at Drama Centre London at Central Saint Martins, the Bush Theatre, writers development organisation Writers at Work Productions and Oberon Books.
Jennifer Tuckett, Course Leader for MA Dramatic Writing at Drama Centre London at Central Saint Martins said, “The Student Guide to Writing is a new series designed to provide access to the best dramatic writing training in the UK for students and their teachers at schools and Universities across the UK.
"Teachers can use the lesson plans in classes or students can follow the lesson plans on their own. The winning student work will be published along with the lessons in a book published by Oberon Books as a permanent legacy of the project.
"We are thrilled about the partnership between Central Saint Martins, the Bush Theatre and Oberon Books on competition one, all of whom are leading the way in the UK.
"Our research over the last two years has shown it is often difficult for students and teachers to gain access to the best possible dramatic writing training coming out of the industry and lesson plans and we hope this new competition series will address that by providing step-by-step guidance by the best dramatic writing trainers in the UK.”