For Schools & Groups
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 and using our free digital video course.
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 develop their own creativity and writing skills.
Schools pack & playwriting groups
Any school or group can run their own playwriting club, and teachers and facilitators don’t need any specialist knowledge in playwriting! Go on, give it a try.
We’ve created a full pack for schools, teachers and groups interested in getting involved – including tips for supporting young writers and a blueprint to set up your own ‘playwriting group’, whether as part of classes, as a lunchtime or afterschool club, or part of an existing group offer.
Based on expert guidance and input from teachers and facilitators who took part in our pilot year, the guide contains everything you need to get started. Download a copy here.
The guide will also work perfectly with our Video Masterclass series, which you can use to run group sessions, including worksheets for teachers and facilitators to use and exercises in each video with flexible ‘pause the video’ moments for participants.
If you’d like any further information or have any questions about running your own group, you can get in touch with us on youngplaywrights@royalcourttheatre.com.
Video series
We’ve designed a free video 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.
Each video is led by a professional playwright with tips and exercises for young writers, plus a corresponding work sheet which you can download to support the session. 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.
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
Workshops
Each year, we also deliver in-person workshops and masterclasses with professional Royal Court playwrights visiting schools, youth groups and partner organisations, as well as several open workshops for any young person to join.
Unfortunately, we’re not able to add any additional workshops at the moment, but sign up to the newsletter for updates including the open workshops. If you’d be interested in discussing more opportunities in future, you can email us on youngplaywrights@royalcourttheatre.com.
