How to enter
Submissions
The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2023 is now open for submissions!
The deadline is 5pm on Monday 17th April.
As part of the submission process, you’ll be asked to:
- confirm that your submission meets our eligibility criteria
- give us your name and contact details
- tell us about your play
- submit your script
- fill out an Equal Opportunities form, describing your professional and personal background.
Please note that submissions should not be anonymous. You may use a pseudonym if you wish – we just need a valid email address so that we can contact you.
Supporting statement
As in previous years, you have the option to include a supporting statement, giving us additional context about your play.
It’s not compulsory, but can help our reading team and judges make more informed decisions about your submission – particularly in later rounds.
Some areas to touch on might include:
- why you wrote the play, or your intentions for it
- where it is in its development, or anything you’d want to work on if you were to develop it further.
This doesn’t have to be an essay – bullet points are fine – and if you’d prefer to submit a voice recording or video instead, you can.
It should be a maximum of 500 words if written, or 3mins if recorded.
Eligibility
Writers
The Women’s Prize for Playwriting is open to writers who are:
- female or non-binary
- aged sixteen or older
- resident in the UK, Republic of Ireland or in a British Overseas Territory, or have a British Forces Post Office address.
Scripts
Submitted scripts must:
- be written in English
- be written for stage
- be an original work (i.e. not an adaptation)
- last an hour or more in playing time
- not have been professionally produced (i.e. no more than five ticketed performances, and no professional reviews)
- not have received any other prizes or awards.
Submitted scripts may be:
- co-written
- any cast size
- any genre and style, except musicals (though plays which contain songs are eligible)
Writers must:
- own all copyright relating to the script
- submit only one script
- include their name(s) and contact details on the first page of the script.
Prize
- The writer of the script which is awarded the First Prize by the judging panel will receive £12,000.
- The prize money comprises £12,000 as a fee in respect of an exclusive option for Paines Plough and Ellie Keel Productions to co-produce the winning script. Pursuant to the option, a decision will be taken whether to produce the script within 12 months of the awards ceremony. In the absence of a decision being taken to produce the play within the 12 months, all professional rights will revert to the writer.
- If the winning play is produced by Paines Plough and Ellie Keel Productions then royalties and other arrangements will be negotiated separately.
Submit your script
Submissions for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2023 are via a GoogleForm.
If you have a Google account, you can upload the script directly from your Drive. Please click here to begin your application.
If you don’t have a Google account, you have the option either to provide a link for us to download the script from another website (e.g. Dropbox), or to email us the play. Please click here to begin your application.
A large text version of the form is available to download as a Word doc or PDF If you’d prefer to fill that out and return it to us via email, along with a copy of your script, please do.
More questions
If you have any questions about the submission process that aren’t addressed on our FAQs page please email submissions@womensprizeforplaywriting.co.uk