A Message From...

Dear Playwrights, Theatres & Producers,

Before joining the Royal Court last year, I spent most of my professional life producing new theatre. I worked almost exclusively in the independent sector, without the weight and resource of a big institution – at fringe venues, my own company, freelance gigs and festivals. I am no stranger to standing outside a venue, flyering strangers in the street in a range of weathers.

In fact, being Executive Director here is my first role at a major venue or Arts Council-funded organisation. It’s been a shift and challenge: adapting to the size, scrutiny, and responsibility of a national institution.

I’m loving it, but my independent, budget-stretching, money-hustling, outsider mentality will never quite fade. As we’ve increased investment in the Court’s support of plays and playwrights, the question of what it means to be a ‘national institution’ has stuck in my head. In particular, what support we can give those without the scale of our resource.

Our 70th Anniversary programme offers a phenomenal year of treats for audiences in London, but I think if we only focus on our own stages in Sloane Square, we’re not doing our full job. At its best, the Royal Court is the national force for playwriting everywhere. If we believe new plays are the lifeblood of our sector and a heartbeat for our wider culture (spoiler: we do), then we have to extend that belief further – at a time when we know it can be hard to afford.

This isn’t just about the indie sector and fringe. UK-wide, artistic budgets have rarely been more stretched, even at venues with traditionally healthy funding. Original play commissioning has declined. Brilliant producers and programmers increasingly turn to adaptations and revivals, not by choice but because the cost and risk of something completely new is hard to square.

That’s why I’m writing now: announcing the next step in our plan to turn this tide for a generation of artists and audiences.

JERWOOD ROYAL COURT COMMISSIONING SCHEME

Launched today, the Jerwood Royal Court Commissioning Scheme is a new national funding programme to unlock risk and investment in play commissioning – increasing support for new writing across the UK.

From 2026, beginning in our 70th anniversary, we’re awarding six grants of up to £6,000 each to underwrite first payments for new play commissions every year. We know the first commission payment can be the hardest to fund up-front – typically non-recoupable, made before there’s a script to consider for production. We’re offering to underwrite that risk for theatres and producers everywhere.

These are not Royal Court commissions: we’re not looking for any control or rights, and (as we pinkie-swore to colleagues in the artistic team) all the money is coming from separate budgets, not competing with regular internal spending on play commissioning and development. It’s a truly open offer: to give a more diverse range of nation-wide writers the space to write ambitious, risky, adventurous and challenging new plays – and for those plays to have routes to production at more theatres across the country.

The scheme has (you guessed it) been made possible by the generous, ongoing partnership of Jerwood Foundation. Our relationship with Jerwood goes back decades, not least in the names of both our theatres and the renowned Jerwood New Playwright accolade – but this is a departure. For the first time, instead of focusing on our own stages, we’re directing this partnership outward: sharing resource nationally, open to anyone who shares our values and beliefs for new writing.

It’s also supported by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, helping ensure fair terms for writers – but also because (credit where credit’s due) we have them to thank for the germ of the idea.

Back in 2022, at a pandemic-induced low point in commissioning, the Writers’ Guild ran their own one-off ‘New Play Commissioning Scheme’. When David and I were at New Diorama, we were lucky enough to be recipients – experiencing first-hand how transformative this start-up support was to get a new project off the ground. I hope this Scheme can do the same for countless new plays over the next decade.

HOW IT WORKS

The Scheme is open to joint applications between a playwright and a producing venue or company – whether subsidised, independent, or commercial, at any scale and anywhere in the country.

Grants will cover the full first commission payment or ‘signature fee’, paid to the producer – who will then pay the writer against a finalised commissioning agreement. The commission will belong entirely to the producer and writer (with the producer responsible for future costs), with their own contractual relationship and every right to tell us to ‘butt out’ if we try to get too involved further down the line.

The application form is pretty short: a few questions about the applicants, the proposed commission and planning so far. That includes an early indication of how and when the play might be produced, if it goes well – because the ultimate success isn’t just commissions, but original plays brought to life for audiences.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

Finally, something to think about for anyone who wants to apply.

The aim of this Scheme is to unlock genuinely thrilling and adventurous new plays, the sort that both entertain and excite audiences in the moment, and aim to push our artform and our society forwards. At the Royal Court, we articulate these ideas through our artistic values:

1. Freedom. Platforming controversial views, mess and uncertainty, ahead of public and peer consensus.

2. Innovation. Encouraging experimentation, risk, and protecting artists’ right to fail.

3. Dissonance. Finding strength in contradiction and contrast, from incendiary work to conflicting voices.

4. Ambition. Rigorously and abundantly supporting big imaginations and bold artistic visions.

You might use different words, and you might apply these values in different ways and contexts – whether making shows for major national stages, independent venues or smaller companies, with community-based practice or commercial ambition. But the chances are, if you’re reading this blog – if you’re a member of our Writers’ Card – then that list resonates with you. If you’re thinking about applying, start there.

The first application round will open from 2nd December 2025 to 23rd January 2026. We can’t wait to read about your plans and plays, and what leaps of faith you might be willing to take if we can help underwrite the first step.

Meantime, you can read full guidance, eligibility, timelines and FAQs, book for a webinar and download the questions to prepare in advance – all now available here.

Speak soon,

Will Young

Fellow Playwrights,

This is not like my usual letters to you.

Previously, I have written to introduce new ideas and programmes that put the Royal Court at the service of our playwriting community.

Today, I am here asking for your help.

A Nation of Young Playwrights

Last year we launched the Royal Court’s first Young Playwrights Award, inviting teenagers across London to write and send the Court a new play. The response was so overwhelming, and the quality so outstanding, that from this year we’re rolling the programme out nationally: inviting 13-18 year-olds from across the whole of the UK to send us their plays.

Our ambition is nothing less than to return the UK to a nation of playwrights. Today, every schoolchild has the opportunity to write a short story, prose, and poetry as part of their state school education. Yet – despite our being one of the few nations in the world to have a playwright on our banknotes (William Shakespeare, about whom I’ve heard nothing but the most promising things) – a young person can go through their entire education without writing dramatic dialogue.

It’s the Court’s mission to change that. This is where your help comes in.

Our first step is to make the Young Playwrights Award a national celebration of the theatrical talent of teenagers across the country. To show what we’re missing. After all, young people are - and have always been - the essential lifeblood of theatre. The history of theatre is its constant reinvention: generation after generation, instinctively finding new forms and ways of presenting the world. However, without routes in and opportunities to experiment - two things desperately lacking in our current culture – our whole artform will stagnate.

We Need Your Help

I’m asking you to help us, to become an advocate for the Writer’s Theatre and support us in this mission for young people everywhere.

Across the country, each playwright reading this letter will have a connection to a young person bursting with creativity for whom playwriting might be the natural outlet. Many of you will have a relationship with your local schools, creative community groups, or am-dram societies where young people considering a career in the arts are unsure how to take the first step. We’ll all have links to theatres with youth groups and outreach programmes. For this plan to work, we need your help to reach young people in every one of these settings.

(And, let’s be honest, as writers we are constantly asked by family members and friends-of-friends to advise their children who want to go into theatre. I’ve always suspected they ask playwrights rather than more glamorous actor types as we are more likely to talk them out of it. For once, let’s disappoint them!)

This must be a national moment. We need to be everywhere, spreading the word. The Royal Court can’t do that alone - but together, marshalling this huge, brilliant and committed Writers’ Card community, we could be unstoppable.

We’ve got resources ready to go. Videos filmed and edited (good news, I’m not in any of them!). Information packs compiled. Everything needed to help you help us is on hand: advice on making an approach to groups; guidance for schools and youth centres wanting to set up their own ‘Playwriting Clubs’; materials you can share, and posters you can print to put on noticeboards or in staff rooms.

You can find all information about the award here, and guidance and resources for schools and groups getting involved here. Or contact us at youngplaywrights@royalcourttheatre.com, and we’ll be in touch with support.

It’s been a tough few years for the arts, for theatre, and for the playwriting community. Everything we’re working towards at the Court is about creating new energy, momentum and hope – all things that are embodied by our Young Playwrights Award.

Together we are far greater than the sum of our parts. Things are turning a corner. We’re almost back on our feet again, and it starts with this.

Yours,

David Byrne

Dear Directors, 

My name is Aneesha, and I’m Resident Director at the Royal Court. 

Before I took up this role, I was Trainee Director here at the Royal Court. Before that, I was a freelance director – which also meant being a freelance writer, researcher, teacher, and personal assistant. I loved wearing many hats, but it was also the most practical way to survive. Like most directors I know, making theatre full-time just wasn’t possible. 

When I applied for the Trainee Director job in spring 2023, I was in a strange place. Directing didn’t pay enough to go full-time, getting projects off the ground was difficult (it still is), and what I really wanted was to learn. I needed paid opportunities, and I needed to get better. And knew I couldn’t do one without the other. 

Before this job, I didn’t know how a theatre ran. I didn’t know how the industry ran. I didn’t know which doors to walk through – or even where those doors might be. I knew I’d be in storied company as a Trainee Director, but the industry had changed so much in just a few short years, and I felt worried – uncertain about my path forward, and that of my peers. 

These last two years have brought the steepest learning curve of my life. I’ve been thinking: I shouldn’t be the only person able to have that curve. My fellow directors – and those coming up – need it too. To get better. To feel free enough to think creatively. To begin actively planning for a future. None of which are possible if your feet aren’t steady on the ground. 

So here’s the result of all that thinking: a ladder of support for directors – open, transparent, and climbable. 

We’re opening the doors to anyone who wants to learn more about how to direct, through a series of free-to-attend events designed to help you watch, absorb, and grow. These include

• Open Technical Sessions – because tech is a beast, and watching someone experienced run one can be illuminating (and often thrilling).
• Workshops – because directing is a craft as much as an art. We’ll cover everything from planning auditions, to shaping a concept, to building a good budget.
• Directors’ Nights – come see a show, then speak to the director or their team about how they made it with a drink (on us).
• A new Assistant Directors’ Pool 

We’re also creating a dedicated budget line for Assistant Directors in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs for the first time. This means more paid opportunities to observe and participate in the daring, experimental work we make in our studio space. Each year, we’ll form a pool of six assistant directors. If you’re in the pool, you’ll be the first considered for assisting opportunities – and the place comes with a bursary. 

And finally, we’re bringing back the Trainee Director scheme – now for two directors a year. 

Twelve months embedded in the building: reading scripts, observing rehearsals, learning how departments work together in a subsidised London theatre. Because it’s a great way to learn how a building runs – in case you’d like to run one someday. And because it changes lives. It certainly changed mine. 

Directing new writing takes courage, care, and a steady hand. I hope this programme helps you find your way into it – as I did, and still am. 

Aneesha Srinivasan

Fellow Playwrights,

First, again, sorry it’s taken me so long to write. I realise this is becoming a recurring theme. It turns out that running a major theatre leaves remarkably little time for writing long, heartfelt letters to playwrights. Or indeed writing anything at all. To be fair, like all the best writers, I struggled to write before getting this job – and now I have the perfect avoidance tactic (excuse).

Anyway, on 1st May 2025 I hit a milestone: one full year of programming as Artistic Director at the Royal Court. It’s still a job I don’t quite believe I have. So much of the time has been spent racing from one thing to another that there’s been little chance to stop and take stock.

Thus far it’s been an intense sprint — though, to be clear, that was the plan. The idea was to build early momentum: more shows, more styles, more forms, more everything on stage and beyond. And it’s worked.

Over the last twelve months we’ve welcomed over 90,000 audience members through the doors in Sloane Square – playing 90% capacity across both theatres. The Writers’ Card, launched in September, has become one of the largest communities of playwrights anywhere in the world. Today, the Court is busy every day with writers using the building. Career Surgeries, Playwrights’ Canteens and Writers’ Nights are now the regular life of the building, introducing us to new writers every week.

People are even using the free printer for their plays. Yes, occasionally, someone is even finishing something they’ve written. Though it’s strongly discouraged. It’s been calculated at various points in the Court’s history that if every playwright who owed us a commissioned play were to submit their draft, the confluence of acceptance fees could bankrupt us.

While this activity has been growing across the building, Open Submissions has boomed. This last year we received over 3,000 plays to read for consideration: a record for recent years.

The thread that runs through all these successes is you. Nothing would have been possible without writers showing up, leaving the house, making the effort, taking their seat, making a contribution, helping us build it, Finishing The Draft, exporting to PDF and sending it in. So, thank you. So today we’re going to one step further in building this new contract between us, opening up our offer even more to make the Court the home of writers everywhere.

A Change to Groups

Over this last year, our Intro to Playwriting Groups ran pretty much as they have since they started in this format back in 2016. Last year, we offered a single annual call-out. Writers who wanted to be considered filled in an application form and included a very short extract of a script.

Speaking for myself, I’m bad at filling out applications. Often spending days trying to shape a narrative for myself as a person (which is sort of like trying to bite your own teeth), wondering if I’m enough, saying the right things, sounding confident enough yet still In Need Of Support – all rather than just trusting in my writing to speak for itself. And on our side, frankly we don’t learn much from making writers compete in this way, through brief application questions and extracts. Nothing tells us more about whether we want to invest in a writer than reading their work, properly, in full, giving real, artistic consideration to their work.

Plus, there’s the numbers. In 2024 we had over 1,200 applications for only 30 spaces on Intro groups. A success rate of less than 3%.

For the lucky 3%, their six sessions with a Royal Court playwright will have been hugely valuable. For the remaining 97% (thanks, GCSE Maths), far less so. We all know from experience that there is nothing more underwhelming than putting in so much effort just to hear back that the organisation has been “overwhelmed by the quality of submissions”. We need to find a better way.

So that’s what we’re doing. From 2025 we are stopping the one-off Intro To Playwriting applications, in favour of a fundamental expansion and reimagining of Writers’ Groups.

From this summer, there will be no more application processes to join a Writers’ Group at the Court, no more waiting another year to re-apply. Instead, we’re turning all our energy to most meaningfully engage with the plays we receive from playwrights through Open Submissions. Our team of valiant readers and the Court’s Artistic Team will be looking year-round for new writers for groups who simply send us their plays: which is where we believe everything should start.

Instead of only 30 places, we’re going to run groups of identified writers all year round – welcoming up to 100 playwrights each year into the fold, more than triple what was previously available. With at least five annual groups, places will always be rolling, responsive and available for talented playwrights in-the-moment, rather than the ability to write yet another competitive application.

And instead of six sessions per group, we’re investing to make these longer, deeper experiences – increased to run for up to 10 weeks. Every session will be led by a produced Royal Court playwright, who, at the end of the programme, will read and note your play ahead of you submitting it (should you wish) for full consideration for our programme.

And, while most of these groups will be hosted here at Royal Court HQ, there will be zoom options available for writers who can’t get into London, whether from elsewhere in the UK or from around the world. Plus, budgets for access support, ensuring everyone can take part.

That’s the new offer, responding to the challenges we’re seeing at the moment. But we’ll keep listening and making adjustments – just as this new plan is the result of Gill, the Court’s Senior Dramaturg, talking and listening to feedback from writers across the past year.

Now, as Artistic Director, I know that my team, Gill and I will only ever be able to programme around 10 plays a year for our stages. We’ll always reject far more – often excellent pieces of writing – to make way for that handful that most need the protection and support of the Court. But I also know that we are the spiritual home of writers everywhere – and even if you never have a play on with us, or never want to, the Royal Court should be where your community, craft and courage can develop. I think this is another step in that direction.

More Soon (but not now)

I’m dying to tell you about more of our plans, but my Executive Director has strictly instructed me to wait till they’re properly ready for announcement. But… Well. We’ve got a selection of things cooking, some of which about to come to the simmer. We’ve been prioritising ideas that have the potential to really shift the landscape for playwrights across the country, and support more writers and creatives. I can’t wait to share them with you as we try and write a new contract between the Court and playwrights everywhere.

With this in mind, I hope it’s not nine months until my next update. In the meantime, thank you for your continued support and fellowship.

And if you take one thing from this letter, it’s this: please send us your plays. Although, for reasons detailed earlier in this note, please not all at the exact same time…

Yours, with continued affection,

David Byrne

Fellow Playwrights,

First, sorry it’s taken me so long to write.

I took up the Artistic Director job at the Royal Court now nine months ago. Since, like all leaders running national institutions, I’ve been focused on finding solutions to a set of seemingly impossible challenges. One day, likely years from now, I’m sure I’ll write about this remarkable period which has tested me like no other, but not today. Today, I want to talk about you.

The outlook for playwrights around the country is bleak. In private conversations with writers, while solutions seem far from easy, the challenges are clear to articulate.

The emotional contract that once underpinned the relationship between new writing theatres and playwrights is coming undone. Few new playwrights truly believe that sending a play cold to a theatre really is a viable route to a career anymore – and nothing has replaced it. The drawbridge is up. The open routes that once filled stages with new talent feel blocked.

Trust between artists and institutions sits at an all-time low. We’re not just speaking a different language but – worse – often not speaking at all, during a time of heightened risk of censorship when dialogue should be essential.

All the while, seemingly endless rejection closes the doors on even the most basic of opportunities. It just doesn’t add up anymore. Not just that the money isn’t enough (it’s not), but the time and energy it takes even to try is running out.

Isolation is everywhere. Many playwrights are confined to their bedrooms, their desk often their bed – the same place they eat, sleep and dream. Their main professional network exists online – which, at its worst excess, creates a culture of self-censorship rather than encouraging artistic adventure. Playwrights, who should be bold and brave, are increasingly nervous of making art that isn’t instantly appealing to the loudest voices.

These are big challenges. But they’re also why I wanted this job.

I interviewed to become the Artistic Director of the Royal Court with the ambition of bringing together a team who’d spend the next decade working to fundamentally transform the culture of playwriting in this country.

During the past nine months the foundational work has begun. I’ve met with and listened to writers to understand the problems; and met with theatres and organisations around the country who support writers to ensure we best complement their offers. I’ve worked to assemble a team who get the challenges also – and, in the case of our new Associate Playwrights, a team who have lived them first hand.

Today I’m writing to you for the first time, as the real work towards that mission begins. The whole team here at the Royal Court is working flat out to make it happen, but we’re going to need your help. It’s time for the Royal Court Theatre to enter the group chat.

1.

Introducing The Writers’ Card

To respond to these crises in playwriting, today we are opening membership of the English Stage Company for the first time since censorship ended in England over half a century ago.

Membership of the Royal Court / English Stage Company was originally a means of protecting playwrights from the Lord Chamberlain’s censorship laws – allowing them to create their bravest work – and allowing audiences to see it without risk of prosecution. It represented a real promise of artistic freedom and solidarity.

Today, our ambition is that this, The Writers’ Card, will act as a lightning rod, bringing together the playwriting community to respond to this new set of challenges.

For Writers’ Card members, the Royal Court will open up new opportunities, resources and even our whole building. We’ll bring together every partner we can find, every penny we can get our hands on – all focused towards supporting, encouraging and creating work made in the cast of our legacy for audiences of the future.

Not a scheme or a programme, this is an experiment towards a new way of us working. The Writers’ Card is an offer, an invitation and a promise – all designed to put the Royal Court at the service of writers.

While free to join for everybody, membership of The Writers’ Card is dedicated towards those writers who share the often-challenging artistic values that have always sat at the heart of the Royal Court’s mission.

Perhaps more than ever, we need an emboldened artistic community which embraces the right to fail and supports fellow playwrights even in the face of failure. We need playwrights to be able to come together in good faith, in a community that contains dissonant and conflicting views, makes space for forgiveness, and builds an appetite for work which genuinely pushes ahead of public taste.

These ideals can feel dangerous. Hard to embrace, inevitably complicated, they are often difficult to defend and easy to assail – sometimes asking us to protect those who sit in direct opposition to our own beliefs.

But every generation must fight to hold on to these values and ideals. It’s our time now, and this community can be the vanguard.

2.

So, what will The Writers’ Card give me?

For artists who want to build community around this promise, we’re going to provide resources and opportunities to bring us together all towards supporting this work being written.

This activity falls broadly under two headings.

The first focus is the creative act of writing itself. The putting of pen to paper, fingers to keys. From today onwards, every weekday, we’re inviting you to make the Royal Court your writers’ room. With the library now open, we’re putting in extra plug sockets, changing the playlists and extending our opening hours. We’re offering a playwrights-only secret bar menu beginning with coffee, tea and soft drinks for just £1, removing any guilt of stretching out a single diet coke for four hours (I have personally had sleepless nights of putting various independent cafes out of business doing just this). You’ll be able to print your script for free – because nobody has a printer in their home anymore. We’re even offering to hold your mobile in a lock bag at box office to help you unplug and focus. A service I’m sorely tempted to use myself.

There’s more. A monthly Playwright Canteen will bring writers together, to mingle with each other and the Royal Court team, have lunch and make big plans. And for those playwrights who can’t afford to come and write with us during the day, we’re opening up our paid writers’ support – making half our paid writing weeks each year available via lottery for the first time.

Naturally, the second is a focus on the craft, career and community of playwriting. Practical resources which were previously available to just a handful of writers every year will be accessible to all Writers’ Card members. These will include attending workshops, joining us for free post-show drinks, accessing one-to-one surgeries, live podcast recordings, and hearing directly from inspiring writers. Throughout the year, we’ll also host private discussions and debates on the biggest issues facing writers today, where meaningful dialogue and honest disagreement are cherished.

It’s too much to list every detail here, and I’d encourage you to have a look through our website and take a look as to what’s on offer.

This is not going to solve all the problems we have, and we’re bound to fall short and ourselves need forgiveness. But it’s a first step. And if you think there’s something we’ve not thought of which would help, we’ll listen as we grow this offer year-on-year.

What we’ve got is some ideas and a lot of energy. What we’re missing is you.

So sign up to The Writers’ Card, let’s work to make it possible together.

From me but on behalf of the whole team here, with hope and with anticipation,

David.

3.

P.S. A note on Open Submissions

Alongside all these new ideas, we’re working to strengthen the old ones – recommitting to the foundational promises of the Royal Court, starting with Open Submissions.

Since the pandemic, institutions around the world have closed their open submissions for new scripts. And we know that many of the opportunities that survive can feel like opaque processes with long waiting times for little reward.

Today we’re one of the few theatres left where anyone, year-round, can send an unsolicited script and know it will be read and considered seriously for production. It’s a radical promise and an electric possibility. It’s how, in 1980, Andrea Dunbar’s first play, written on the pages of a school exercise book in green biro, made its way to our stages. It’s a central part of our DNA. (Can anything be actually central to DNA? It’s likely time to admit that I don’t know how DNA works.)

Anyway! We want the promise Open Submissions to be at the heart of everything we do. Reading plays voraciously and transparently, with clear communication with writers about where their work sits and how it has been considered. So today we’re also announcing two further experiments.

First, we’re investing further in this route to our stages, reducing the turnaround time to get feedback, a response or an expression of potential interest. From 2025, it’s our aim that response times will be just three months. And, if we think we’re going to fall short on this timeline, we’ll communicate that clearly with you. We’re setting the ambition.

And second, we want to make a greater commitment to the most exciting plays we read, even – perhaps especially – the near-misses for our programme. We’re going to host a new Open Submissions festival where Royal Court audiences and theatres from across the country can share in the promise of the best new scripts we’re reading each year – with our artistic teams championing them to be picked up for production.

Together, re-establishing that the best way to get your work onto the stage of the Royal Court – or on other stages across the country – is to simply Send Us Your Script.

4.

P.P.S. For Fellow Theatres and New Writing Companies

Many of you will have had conversations with me about some of these ideas as I’ve travelled around the country this past nine months – generously sharing your own insights, ideas and ambitions.

As I’ve written, for us this is the beginning of an experimental year – trying and testing different ways of working, seeing what floats and what sinks.

I’d love the future of The Writers’ Card to be national and international. For us to partner and link up more with those working and championing writers everywhere. If you’d like to discuss the insights we receive from this pilot year, and/or discuss being a partner with us in future, we’d love to begin that conversation.

Drop an email through to literary@royalcourttheatre.com to begin the conversation.