Young Writers Festival

The Royal Court Young Writers Festival has an unrivalled reputation for discovering new voices and for showcasing the best plays by the most exciting young talent.

The first Young Writers Festival took place in 1973. Over the years, it has launched the careers of many now established and admired UK playwrights. Writers who have taken part in recent Festivals include Nick Payne (Wanderlust), Bola Agbaje (Off The Endz, Gone Too Far!), Alia Bano (Shades), DC Moore (The Empire, Alaska) and Molly Davies (A Miracle). Royal Court Writers’ Tutor and playwright Leo Butler, and Olivier award winning playwright Simon Stephens had their first major plays featured in the Festival.

For a full line-up and booking information for this year’s festival, click here.

YOUNG WRITERS FESTIVAL 2012

In spring 2011, we opened applications for writers aged 25 and under to submit a full-length play, drawing on any themes or subjects of their choosing. We received over 300 plays offering a huge variety of stories, characters, and ideas. Each play was read by a team of readers, made up of playwrights, directors, Royal Court staff and previous Young Writers Festival winners.

The chosen plays for Young Writers Festival 2012 are:

Goodbye to All That by Luke Norris. Directed by Simon Godwin

Frank has been married for forty years. Three years ago he fell in love.
This taut and tender new play asks if it’s ever too late to start again.

Luke Norris is a 25 year old actor, who has participated on the Royal Court Studio’s writing programmes.

Vera Vera Vera by Hayley Squires. Directed by Jo McInnes

The boy who comes back from a war far away in a wooden box is glorified and called a hero. As the funeral plans are made in a small Kent town, his siblings squabble over who he was. Maybe the fanfare isn’t needed for this heroic martyr.

Hayley Squires is a 23 year-old actress from Kent. This is Hayley’s first submission to the Royal Court.

Both plays will receive full productions in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. For more information and to book tickets, click here.

READINGS

In addition to the two full productions, we’ll be holding a series of rehearsed readings in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs to showcase more of the brilliant plays submitted to this year’s Festival.

Brilliant Adventures by Alistair McDowall. Directed by Caroline Steinbeis
Ain’t No Law Against Fish ‘N’ Chips by Rose Lewenstein. Directed by Richard Twyman
Reflection by Rianna Mitchell-Henry. Directed by Gbolahan Obisesan
Where the Shot Rabbits Lay by Brad Birch. Directed by Nick Bagnall

Saturday Shorts Directed by Charlotte Gwinner
During the Summer of 2011, the Royal Court worked with 8-18 year olds from across London. Under the tutelage of Royal Court writers debbie tucker green, EV Crowe and Nick Payne, each young writer created a fully-realised short play for submission to the Young Writers Festival.

A selection of the young people’s plays will be performed in Saturday Shorts on 17 March, with seven short plays from the 8-11 age group and three plays from 12-15 age group.

EVENTS

There will also be a host of FREE events and workshops around this year’s festival, including storytelling workshops for children, spoken word nights and live music in the bar, talks with young writers, an end-of-festival Literary Ball and the 100 word play, which invites anyone to write a very short play which will be displayed around the Royal Court during the Festival.

For more information, or to book tickets please visits the Whats On section of the website.