bush literary
Discovering and championing playwrights is at the heart of the Bush.
We receive more than 1,000 scripts per year and read every single one. Many writers started their careers by posting us a play, including Catherine Johnson, Samuel Adamson, Mark O'Rowe and Jack Thorne.
The Bush is run by ten people. Our literary team is Alice Lacey (Interim Literary Administrator), Nathan Curry (Associate Director), Charlotte Gwinner (Associate Director) and Josie Rourke (Artistic Director). BushFutures is our development arm which works with new Playwrights. It's overseen by Anthea Williams (Associate Director BushFutures). We're supported by a team of six professional directors who make up our creative associates panel - Ed Viney, Nessah Muthy, Richard Twyman, Alice Lacey, Joe Murphy and Kate Budgen. Alice is your first point of contact.
We direct all our energies towards producing the best playwrights at the Bush and beyond.
sending us a play
Currently you can submit a script to us by post or through Bush Green - our new collaboration and publishing website for playwrights. Please read our submission guidelines and process before you do so.
development
We think that the best way to 'develop' a playwright is by putting on their work. The Bush is a small theatre with a tiny and dedicated staff, so we can respond swiftly to programme a great play. We use our reading to find plays to produce and playwrights to work with at the Bush.
To help us do this, we are going to be clearer in our response to your plays: either we will produce a play on our stage; advocate it elsewhere or let it go. Everything we do to 'develop' writers is about taking them towards a production on our stage or beyond.
If we're not going to produce your play but we want to engage with your playwrighting, we'll do our best to get you on our stage. In 2008, we produced nineteen playwrights at the Bush and we're always looking to create more opportunities to present your work.
We don't give notes on plays we're not going to produce. If we develop a play it will be with the right director, giving good notes, in concrete moves towards a production.
bush green
With the support of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, the Bush Theatre has developed a new social networking and play publishing website, bushgreen. The site connects playwrights with theatre practitioners and plays with producers to inspire the creation and production of exciting new theatre.
bushgreen allows members to:
Submit plays directly and electronically to the Bush for our team to read and consider for production
Connect with other writers, directors, producers and theatres
Read weekly editorials from leading playwrights theatre
practitioners
Publish scripts online so more people can access your work.
The site launched internationally on the 1st December 2009 and has thousands of members and hundreds of plays online for download. You can join now at www.bushgreen.org
bush green offer
All writers who submit a play to the Bush via bush green or mail are eligible for complimentary tickets to all preview performances here. Please call the office on 0208 743 3584 for more information *
*Subject to availability*
submission guidelines
Please include a covering letter which tells us a bit about what you have been up to as a writer.
Your script should be formatted as follows:
- 12pt font
- Header with title of play and your name
- Page numbers at the bottom
If you're posting in a hard copy of your play, please bind, tag, or secure your pages together. Nothing fancy is needed just no bulldog or paperclips.
submission process
Here's what happens to your play...
We read every play we receive. If your play is not for us we'll let you know as quickly as we can (usually within eight weeks). We don't think it's fair to keep you hanging on if we're not going to take your play forward.
Some plays we'll pass on to our panel of six creative associate directors. We meet with them once a month to discuss the plays and writers we're particularly interested in. We think it's important that your play is read by a professional director, so even if we decide not to produce it here, a director could become an advocate for you or your play elsewhere.
At that point we'll be in touch to let you know if we're going to take your play forward or not. We aim to always give you a decision within eight weeks.
At any of these stages we might contact you to ask permission to publish your script online on our BushGreen site in order to increase opportunity of your play being produced elsewhere.