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| Information for writers |
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The Bush Theatre runs a script reading service, which is free of charge and open to all. We will happily consider any new writing, which we feel we could potentially stage. We only read full-length plays (80+ minutes) and ask that writers send the script in hard copy, rather than via e-mail, to:
Abigail Gonda
Literary Manager
The Bush Theatre
10 Netherwood Road
London W14 0BJ
Please note that because postage costs are prohibitive, The Bush Theatre can only return scripts accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope. It is also useful, but not necessary, to write a covering letter outlining any relevant experience. Please supply an email address, if available, so that we can quickly acknowledge your submission.
The reading process takes approximately four months, and we try to offer constructive feedback if the script is not something we feel we could develop further here.
We look forward to receiving your play. |
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| How the Literary Department works |
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We receive well over 1000 scripts each year, all of which are considered.
When a script arrives it is passed to one in a team of readers who are experienced in new theatre work; they may be directors, actors or writers.
They read and report back at our monthly script meetings. Our Literary Department will then decide whether it is a script that we can take further here.
If not, we will try to offer some constructive feedback, but owing to the fact
that we receive so many scripts
it
is sadly not possible to give detailed
comments on each script.
The Bush Theatre produces up to eight new, full-length plays each year. Of these, two or three will
be productions of new work by independent companies.
The rest are plays we have commissioned or discovered through our script reading.
We commission five or six writers each year. We only produce new writing, and we only produce full-length plays.
The Bush specialises in
the ‘research and development’ end of theatre writing.
We regularly meet writers whose work interests
us, which may lead to a further draft of the script, |
Petra Letang in
How Love Is Spelt ( 2004)
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or ideas for new work, or to a recommendation to another theatre if we feel the play can’t be produced here. We can only produce one or two of the unsolicited scripts we receive each year.
| Most of the writers whose work we produce have started by sending their work to us through the post. Recent examples include Jack Thorne’s When You Cure Me (2005), Simon Burt’s Bottle Universe (2005), Got To Be Happy (2003) and Untouchable (2002), Amelia Bullmore’s Mammals (2005 & 2006 tour), Steve Thompson’s Damages (2004), Chloë Moss’s How Love Is Spelt (2004), Georgia Fitch’s adrenalin…heart (2002 & 2004), David Eldridge’s M.A.D. (2004) and Serving It Up (1996), Emma Frost’s Airsick (2003), Mark O’Rowe’s Howie The Rookie (1999), Catherine Johnson’s Little Baby Nothing (2003), Shang-A-Lang (1998), Dead Sheep (1991) and Boys Mean Business (1990), Mike Packer’s A Carpet, A Pony And A Monkey (2002) and Card Boys (1999), Adam Rapp’s Blackbird (2001), David Farr’s The Danny Crowe Show (2001), Jonathon Hall’s Flamingos (2001), Simon Block’s |
Jo McInnes, Lewis Chase and Lee Ross in M.A.D (2004) |
A Place At The Table (2000), Samuel Adamson’s Clocks And Whistles (1996), Jonathon Harvey’s Beautiful Thing and Billy Roche’s Wexford Trilogy (his first three plays all produced at The Bush between 1988 and 1991). |
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| Further information |
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A Practical Guide for Writers and Companies is published by ITC (The Independent Theatre Council) for £5 and contains advice and information on all aspects of submitting, developing and producing scripts. Available from: ITC, Unit 12, The Leathermarket, Weston Street, London SE1 3ER. Tel: 020 7403 1727.
Other information for new writers is available from Writernet, Cabin V, Clarendon Buildings, 25 Horsell Road, Highbury, London N5 1XL. Tel: 020 7609 7474. |
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