Closing Soon: Canberra Youth Theatre’s Emerging Playwright Commission
Canberra Youth Theatre’s Emerging Playwright Commission offers a professional commission to an emerging Australian playwright, to create a new full-length work that brings the voices and stories of youth to the stage.
Our Emerging Playwright Commission is generously supported by Holding Redlich.
This initiative places emerging playwrights at the centre of the creative process, and is specifically designed to springboard writers at a crucial point in their career. This commission is for emerging Australian playwrights aged under 35 who have created a modest body of work, but have not yet been professionally produced by a major theatre company.
The commission offers a successful emerging playwright or writing team $17,100 to develop a full-length script suitable to be performed by actors aged anywhere between 7 and 25.
Our goal is to nurture an emerging playwright’s professional growth by investing in their artistic development at the early stages of their career, and supporting them through a creative development process that results in a new, challenging and intelligent theatrical work that expresses the voice of youth, whilst contributing to the development of a rich canon of new Australian plays written especially for young people.
The commissioned playwright receives ongoing dramaturgical support, collaborates with an ensemble of young emerging artists, participates in a series of creative development workshops in Canberra with our Artistic Director and Resident Artists, and sees their script come to life in a staged reading of their work.
The commission will be granted through an open application process, assessed by a panel of young artists and industry professionals, and chosen by the Artistic Director.
The finalists will be invited to attend a special ceremony in Canberra in November where the winner will be announced, receiving a commissioning fee commensurate with the Australian Writers’ Guild theatre rates. In 2024, this is $17,100. Two finalists will receive $1,500 each to support their writing practice.
The successful writer will also have the opportunity to collaborate with other young artists across our Emerging Artists Program, and participate in activities and conversations that contribute to the artistic vision of Canberra Youth Theatre.
Submission deadline is Monday 3 June 2024 at 11:59pm
For more information visit: https://canberrayouththeatre.com.au/writers/commissions/