The deadline for application for the 2019 People’s Judge was 5pm on October 1st, 2018. 

This year for the first time ever the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, with the support of theatre critic Lyn Gardner, is looking for a passionate audience member to join them in the search for original and innovate new voices in drama.

The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is Europe’s largest playwriting prize and every two years launches a search for exciting new plays. From 2000 entries a short list of 10 plays reach the final judging process where an esteemed panel of judges from arts and media select the winning play, past judges have included Russell T Davis, Lucy Prebble, Meera Syal, Sir Nicholas Hytner, and Alfred Enoch. The Bruntwood Prize strives to be utterly democratic. We want an interested and engaged theatre audience member in the North West to join us to help choose the 2019 Bruntwood Prize winners, after all theatre writing is for the audience.

To support the People’s Judge we will offer;

• • A pair of free tickets for 5 productions over the year
  • Standard pay as a Bruntwood Prize Judge- totalling £750
  • All travel and accommodation expenses required to participate as a Bruntwood Prize Judge
  • Free back catalogue of published Bruntwood Prize winning plays from publishers Nick Hern.
  • Two workshops with Lyn Gardner, accompanying her to see a show and discussing with her on what to look out for and how to talk and write about scripts rather than fully formed productions.
  • Administrative support in their role as Judge

Stage One application was simple and asked for a 250 word statement via email on why you want to be a Judge for the Bruntwood Prize, and what new writing for the stage and the role of the playwright means to you.

Our trusted readers will evaluate these personal statements on their genuine interest in new writing for theatre, voice and personality and expression of interest. They will then create a shortlist of 8 to 10.

Stage Two- now underway 

Successful entrants in the shortlist will be contacted no later than Tuesday October 9th and asked to enter Round 2 of the competition.

Round 2 will involve reading an unproduced script and producing a short script report. Both script and script report guidance will be provided by the Royal Exchange Theatre.

These reports will be provided to Lyn Garner no later than Wednesday 24^th October and she will choose one winner of the People’s Judge position, and three strong entries who will be offered a position as a Bruntwood Prize reader. This offer will be made no later than Friday November 16^th. Readers will also be paid the standard rate per script.

The winning Peoples Judge will need to be available for the following activities. We will confirm the dates as soon as possible;

• Dec 2018- day for interview filming
• Late Jan 2019- day for Bruntwood Prize launch event
• October 2019- day for the Judges meeting
• November 2019- day for the Bruntwood Prize Award ceremony

Additionally, as a Judge of the Bruntwood Prize the winner will be required to read the shortlist Bruntwood Prize 2019 plays. Lyn Gardner, editor of the Stage and former Guardian theatre critic will mentor the People’s Judge with the winner announced at the launch of the 2019 Prize with the rest of the 2019 Judging panel. 

Terms and Conditions

1. The competition is open to anyone residing in the North West of England. We define the North West as one of the of the five counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.
2. Entrants must be 18 or over. There is no upper age limit.
3. We can only accept one entry per person.
4. The competition opens on September 3rd with a deadline for entries being Monday October 1^st at 5pm. Any entries received after this time will not be read.
5. We are only able to accept entries made online, to the bruntwood.prize email address. No paper entries will be considered.
6. Entries must not be made by any third party.
7. Successful entrants will not be able to enter the Bruntwood Prize as a playwright during the 2019 round of the competition.
8. Employees of the Royal Exchange Theatre or Bruntwood regretfully cannot enter.
9. We regret that no correspondence can be entered into regarding any part of the judging process.

*We define residence through your ability to produce, if asked, proof of main address on a driving license, appropriate Inland Revenue document or a phone bill with proof of address.

If you still have questions, please contact us on bruntwood.prize@royalexchange.co.uk