Pearson Playwrights' Scheme

Last updated

Pearson Playwrights' Scheme (formerly Thames Television Theatre Writers Scheme) is a British organisation established in 1973 to support theatre writing. It runs the Pearson Award for Best New Play.

Contents

History

In 1973, Howard Thomas, then managing director of Thames Television, launched the Thames Television Theatre Writers Scheme to support and celebrate new writing in the theatre. He believed that television owed much to the theatre for its supply of creative talent. In 1993 Pearson PLC took over the sponsorship of the scheme and it became the Pearson Playwrights' Scheme. [1] [2] Over the past 30 years,[ when? ] the scheme has helped launch some of the finest British play-writing talent. Each year, bursaries are awarded to new writers and an additional award is offered to the writer of the best play. These are selected by the scheme's panel, chaired by Sir John Mortimer CBE QC. [3] The awards are called the Pearson Award for Best New Play.

Since 2014 the scheme has been sponsored by Channel Four [4]

Panel and patrons

The panel has included Michael Billington, Thelma Holt CBE, Sue Summers, Catherine Johnson, Beryl Bainbridge DBE and John Tydeman.

Patrons include Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE, Alan Bleasdale, Stephen Daldry, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Richard Eyre, Sir Peter Hall CBE, Sir Jeremy Isaacs, Joan Plowright CBE, Sir Tom Stoppard and Sue Townsend.

The scheme is administrated by Jack Andrews MBE, and is supported by The Peggy Ramsay Foundation and The Olivier Foundation.

Pearson Award for Best New Play

Winners of the Pearson Award for Best New Play, awarded annually since 1982.

Scheme taken over from Thames by Pearson.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Shaffer</span> English playwright and screenwriter (1926—2016)

Sir Peter Levin Shaffer was an English playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He wrote numerous award-winning plays, of which several were adapted into films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Stephens</span> British playwright (born 1971)

Simon Stephens is an English playwright and Professor of Scriptwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University. Having taught on the Young Writers' Programme at the Royal Court Theatre for many years, he is now an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith. He is the inaugural Associate Playwright of Steep Theatre Company, Chicago, where four of his plays, Harper Regan,Motortown, Wastwater, and Birdland had their U.S. premieres. His writing is widely performed throughout Europe and, along with Dennis Kelly and Martin Crimp, he is one of the most performed English-language writers in Germany.

Roy Samuel Williams is a British playwright.

Joe Scott Penhall is an English-Australian playwright and screenwriter, best known for his award-winning stage play Blue/Orange, the award-winning West End musical Sunny Afternoon and creating the Netflix original series Mindhunter.

Moira Buffini is an English dramatist, director, and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Johnson (playwright)</span> British playwright

Catherine Johnson is a British playwright, producing works for stage and television. She is best known for her book for the ABBA-inspired musical Mamma Mia! and screenplay for the musical's film adaptation. The film became the highest-grossing British picture of all time in the UK, and the biggest selling UK DVD of all time in January 2009. She also co-wrote the 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Michael Bartlett is an English playwright and screenwriter for film and TV series. His 2015 psychological thriller TV series, Doctor Foster, starring Suranne Jones, won the New Drama award from National Television Awards. Bartlett also won Best Writer from the Broadcast Press Guild Awards. A BBC TV Film of Bartlett's play King Charles III was broadcast in May 2017 and while critically acclaimed, generated some controversy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Lan</span>

David Lan is a South African-born British playwright, theatre producer and director and a social anthropologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Eldridge (dramatist)</span> British dramatist and screenwriter

David Eldridge is a British dramatist and screenwriter, born in Romford, Greater London, United Kingdom. His plays have been produced in the West End and on Broadway. He has written for stage, screen and radio.

Terry Johnson is a British dramatist and director working for stage, television and film. Educated at Birmingham University, he worked as an actor from 1971 to 1975, and has been active as a playwright since the early 1980s.

Debbie Horsfield is an English theatre and television writer and producer.

The Apathists were a collective of British playwrights who staged plays and happenings in London between March 2006 and March 2007. The events generated a cult following on the London theatre scene. The collective had a festival of their work at the Union Theatre produced by David Luff and were involved in the 2006 Latitude Festival, but their work mainly centred on monthly nights at Theatre503, formerly the Latchmere Theatre.

Helen Blakeman is a British playwright and screenwriter from Liverpool. She has written three plays. Caravan, her first, was written while she studied at Birmingham University and won her the George Devine award. Her second play, Normal, was followed by an entrance into screenwriting. Pleasureland is a 2003 television film about teen sexuality, for which Blakeman was nominated for the British Academy Television Craft Awards for Best New Writer in 2003, after which Blakeman wrote her third and most recent play, The Morris. In 2008, she wrote the screenplay for the award-winning television film Dustbin Baby, which was well received by critics, and for which she won the British Academy Children's Award for Best Writer. Helen is also the co-founder of Heroic Books LTD.

Winsome Pinnock FRSL is a British playwright of Jamaican heritage, who is "probably Britain's most well known black female playwright". She was described in The Guardian as "the godmother of black British playwrights".

Michael Wilcox is a British playwright.

Michael Wynne is an Olivier Award winning playwright and screenwriter.

Anders Lustgarten is a British playwright, who resides in London.

The Meyer-Whitworth Award was a literary prize established in 1991 and awarded from 1992 until 2011 to new British playwrights to help them further their careers. The £10,000 prize, one of the largest annual prizes for play writing in the UK, was funded by the National Theatre Foundation and named in honour of Geoffrey Whitworth and Carl Meyer, both of whom were instrumental in the establishment of the Royal National Theatre. From its inception until 2006, the award was administered by Arts Council England. After that, it was administered by the Playwrights' Studio, Scotland.

Clare Lizzimore is a British theatre director and writer. Her production of Bull by Mike Bartlett, won 'Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre' at the 2015 Olivier Awards. Lizzimore has been resident director at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, and staff director at the Royal National Theatre.

The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is a British competition for playwriting, the largest of its kind in Europe—in 2019 it received 2561 entries. Since its inception in 2005, more than 15,000 scripts have been entered, £304,000 has been awarded to 34 prize-winning writers, and 24 winning productions have been staged in 38 UK-wide venues. In 2015 the prize celebrated its 10th anniversary and is now recognised as a launch-pad for some of the country's most respected and produced playwrights. The Prize is awarded to scripts that are original and unperformed. The award is a joint venture between the property company Bruntwood and the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester the Prize is an opportunity for writers of any background and experience to enter unperformed plays to be judged by a panel of industry experts for a chance to win part of a prize fund totalling £40,000.

References

  1. Pearson Playwrights' Scheme writersservices.com
  2. Shenton's View, The Nurturing of New Playwrights The Stage
  3. "Thirty years of the Pearson Playwrights' Scheme" National Theatre
  4. "News | Channel 4".