Writers are selected to receive a development grant from script reading, courses or other programmes. The development grant will be granted to develop an idea or an early draft to the next stage.

These development grants are between £500 and £1500 depending on the amount of work necessary. If we like the resulting script we may offer you a further development grant to take it to the next stage.

Current recipients of grants

Kidnapping Agatha by Victoria Levay

It is December 1926 and famous crime writer, Agatha Christie, has disappeared. Her car has been found abandoned in a ditch, instigating the largest manhunt Great Britain has ever seen. The explanation of this, one of Christie’s greatest mysteries, lies in a hotel room in Harrogate where Agatha is sitting tied to a chair, being held captive by two desperate crooks. But as the days pass and the danger mounts, reality and fiction begin to blur, and the characters are drawn into a story of crime, betrayal and murder, that even Christie can’t predict.

Victoria Levay studied Creative Writing at Newcastle University. This is her first play for theatre. 

House Martin by Phil King

This is the story of MARTIN
                                who is scared
                   he wants to build an house
                   he does this because his wife died,
MAYBE SHE DID THIS ON PURPOSE??

He gave up his job and took his daughter to a small patch of land

                                …
                                To run away?
To try and do something to honour the past?
                                               Or is it all just a pack of lies?

Phil King did an MPhil in Playwriting at Birmingham University. He is the writer and director of several plays including Hospitals And Other Buildings That Catch Fire selected for 2006 National Student Drama Festival.