In a statement regarding COVID19 the Government has advised people to stay away from theatres.

During this public health emergency, the safety and wellbeing of our staff, artists, audiences and families comes first.

We appreciate that many people need to self-isolate, distance themselves or are facing lockdown and unable to leave their homes unless in emergencies.

The Royal Exchange Theatre, the home of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, may be closed, our stages may be quiet, our hearts may be breaking, but we continue to be creative, to be writers, directors, artists and theatre makers. We are in unknown territory and are busily making plans about what this means for our future work. We do not yet know what the impact will be across our sector, for the artists who we make work with, the participants that we support and for our audiences going forward.

We are exploring ways in which we can all remain connected and optimistic. Human connection is something we all need, to share stories, to engage our imaginations and emotions. Theatre – the live communal shared experience between bodies on stage and in the audience – is the most pure way to do that. So theatre will be back. And we will need plays. We will need stories to tell that connect with audiences. The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting will go on.

The Bruntwood Prize has always been about much more than the winners. It is about opening up playwriting to anyone and everyone, to support anyone interested in playwriting to explore the unique power of creative expression. Therefore we want to make this website a resource now for anyone and everyone to explore theatre and plays and playwriting. We want to reach out to people to during this time. To support them and to encourage them to explore putting pen to paper, or finger to keyboard and to start telling stories, sharing stories and creating drama.

So we will be highlighting the many different resources archived on this website over the coming weeks. We will also be spending our time on the look out for new challenges, suggestions and opportunities to share with you.

We will continue to be make regular updates on the website to make it easier for you to explore some of the amazing free resources. This will include –

• Monday Provocations – to kickstart your writing week, we will be sharing inspiring blog-posts, diary entries and challenges to get your creativity going.
• Wednesday Toolkits – a repost of our 10 week course by some of the UK’s leading playwrights to introduce you to aspects of writing for the theatre.
• Friday Video Workshops – video workshops with award-winning playwrights and theatre practitioners including Simon Stephens, Winsome Pinnock, Tanika Gupta and many others.

And there will be so much more coming your way – and if you have any suggestions and requests, please do send them our way either over Twitter @bruntwoodprize or email bruntwood.prize@royalexchange.co.uk – we will keep you posted.

We send love and strength to everyone at this difficult time and promise to be in touch as things develop. Together we will get through this.

The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, in partnership with the Royal Exchange Theatre