CALL OUT: NEW WRITING FESTIVAL 2026
Collective Acting Studio invites playwrights to submit their work for our New Writing Festival, running from Monday 14th September – Friday 23rd October 2026.
As part of our third-year BA Acting programme, this festival is a dedicated space for research, development, and discovery of new plays. Each selected script will be brought to life across an intensive one-week process, where our third-year cohort of 18 actors will be split up into subsets (each tackling a different script) and workshopping each piece of writing towards a script-in-hand performance amongst invited guests.
So the above makes sense, if our 3rd Year BA Acting cohort is comprised of 18 students, and we get three plays (each of six characters), then the students will be evenly divided for that one week and that one week alone. The next week, we might have 3 more scripts that have characters of nine people, four people and five people respectively…
We are looking for bold, original writing that is ready to be explored in a rehearsal room.
Submission Criteria:
- Scripts should feature a minimum of four characters (preferably more) to fully engage our acting cohort
- Work can be in development.
- Full-length plays are preferred (approximately 1 hour)
- Submissions must include a script and character breakdown
This is an opportunity to:
- See your work developed with a full cast of trained actors.
- Collaborate within a professional rehearsal environment.
- Gain insight into how your writing lives and breathes in performance.
Each project will be directed by a member of our graduating cohort, with the potential to attach an external director (subject to discussion).
Please note: This opportunity is focused on writers only. Acting roles are fulfilled by our BA Acting students.
Deadline for submissions:
Friday 12th June 2026 at 17:00.
Friday 12th June 2026 at 17:00.
To submit, please complete the form attached here: https://forms.gle/