For Schools and Groups

Are you a teacher, arts facilitator or group leader? We’d love your help finding young Londoners with creative potential and supporting them to take part. 

Do you know any young people with something to say, a gift for writing, or a unique perspective on the world? Do you want a completely free programme to support your creative learning offer and boost writing skills?   

The Young Playwrights Award is for you – whether helping a student get involved or setting up your own playwriting club using our free digital video course. 

Interested in updates through the year? Sign up to our special newsletter here for teachers and group leader resources.

Encourage young people to take part 

We know that teachers and group leaders can be the most valuable connection to the young people who might benefit most from this programme. 

Whether it’s nudging a particular student, promoting the award to your group, class or other networks, or helping advertise around your school our building, we need you! You can share links to this page, or download and print our Young Playwrights Award poster here: 

A4 colour | A3 colour | A4 black & white | A3 black & white

Create your own playwriting group 

We’ve designed a free six-part course to support teenagers to learn about and be inspired by writing plays. The videos can be watched individually, or used in a classroom, lunchtime or after school club, or as part of a regular youth or community group programme. 

We’ll release six videos from February 2025, each led by a professional playwright with tips and exercises for young writers. The group doesn’t need to be led by a teacher with any specialist theatre knowledge. Each video will be self-contained including ‘pause the video’ moments for young people to try writing exercises and think about drafting their own script. 

If you’re interested in planning a group for spring 2025, you can download our teacher & group leader guide here with more details, sign up to our newsletter above for regular updates and the release of our digital resources.  

We don’t expect that every young person taking part will finish and send us a play – though we’d love you to encourage them to do so! Our goal is simply to encourage and inspire many more young people, from all walks of life, to think that playwriting might be something for them and explore their own creative writing skills further. 

For more information or support with any queries, you can email youngplaywrights@royalcourttheatre.com. 

In-person workshops and events 

In Spring 2025, we’re also delivering in-person workshops and masterclasses with professional Royal Court playwrights visiting 20 schools and youth groups.  

Unfortunately, we’re not able to add any additional workshops at the moment, but sign up to the newsletter for more details and to hear about in-person workshops at the Royal Court during the holidays next year. We’re hoping to expand the network of schools and groups we’re working with in future, so please keep an eye out. 

With thanks to our supporters and Publishing Partner, Nick Hern Books.