The BOLD Playwrights Winners 2024.
Gurpreet Jivan
Gurpreet is a writer, playwright and creative producer based in Birmingham and Berlin. She is currently working independently at the intersections of theatre, audio and print. Her work often concerns cultural and social identity in South Asian diasporas. Her first play, Rituals, was performed in Birmingham as part of Kali Theatre Writer’s Discovery Programme in March 2023, and she was selected as part of Soho Theatre Writer’s Lab in 2023/2024. Her other writings have features online in Vittles magazine.
lydia luke
lydia luke (no caps) is a Black woman poet, playwright + director telling complex, nuanced, deeply poetic + radically honest stories about Black british people that examine the heart and human condition. as well as being a BOLD Playwright winner, upright enuf was shortlisted for the RSC’s 37 Plays and a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2021
Lydia Sabatini
Lydia Sabatini is a London-based playwright originally from Essex. She has an MA in Writing for Stage & Broadcast Media from the Central School of Speech and Drama. Her work has been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2021 and longlisted again in 2023. She has participated in the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers group 2021/2, the Traverse Theatre’s Breakthrough Writers: In Residence Programme 2022/3, the Mercury Theatre’s Playwrights Programme 2022/3. the London Library’s Emerging Writers Programme 2023/4, Orange Three Theatre’s Writers Collective 2023/4 and LAMDA and Audible’s GNR8 Scheme 2023/4. Her play The Light Trail was staged at the Hope Theatre in 2022.
The Bold Playwrights Shortlist 2024.
Imogen Bole HALF-TRUTHS AND HLEÓW-FEÐER
lydia luke upright enuf
Beth Mullen Quiet Eaters
Rhys Warrington Monument
Kurban Kassam Untitled
Lydia Sabatini Becki the Bisexual Cannibal Paints Her Nails With Your Gut Blood
Eilidh Nurse This Could Mean Everything
Martin Edwards Lost Boys
Gurpreet Jivan Rituals
Nana- Kofi Kufuor A Dinner Party With Chains
Jesse Bateson Misadventure
Felix Kai The Flow
Georgina Duncan In Memoriam
Marnie Russell Struggling To Establish A Connection Please Refresh
BOLD Playwrights Longlist 2024.
Georgina Duncan In Memoriam
Imogen Bole HALF-TRUTHS AND HLEÓW-FEÐER
Will Pinhey Love is the Atoms
John Dinneen Tower
Phoebe Wood Everything Still
Fran Hess that face should form another
Ella Godfrey Leftovers
lydia luke upright enuf
Molly Anne Sweeney Help Me Learn
Ryan Walker-Edwards Boys Who F**K & Cry*
Beth Mullen Quiet Eaters
Rhys Warrington Monument
Kurban Kassam Untitled
Jon Barton & Lucy Foster SYNTHIA
Niamh Finlay Fallen Women
Heather O’Sullivan After Daddy
Gray Robert Brown Sugar
Sam Thorpe-Spinks Harmony
Jonathan Brace Shaky Breaky Heart
Lola Shaw Carnivalesque
Lydia Sabatini Becki the Bisexual Cannibal Paints Her Nails With Your Gut Blood
Rachel Oyawale but the children of the kingdom
Monica Cox Mummy’s and Mummy’s and Daddy’s and Daddy’s
Fergus Church Unidentified Objects
Eilidh NurseThis Could Mean Everything
Martin Edwards Lost Boys
Tariro Kadare All Flights To Zimbabwe Are Cancelled
Luke Hereford Plastic on the Furniture
Lauren Carter Face Down in the Dirt
Clodagh Chapman Sink
Gurpreet Jivan Rituals
Dom Conneely Hughes The Windows are Crying
Natalie MacKinnon Bread Salt Rain
Bilan Ali Know Who You Are at Every Age
Callan Rose McCarthy IT COULD NEVER BE ME
Toby Cohen Ocean Planet
RJ Hunter Elliot Lays an Egg
Jess Glaisher Dyke Drama
Felix Kai The Flow
Nana- Kofi Kufuor A Dinner Party With Chains
Jesse Bateson Misadventures
Marnie Russell Struggling To Establish A Connection Please Refresh
BOLD Playwrights 2024:
Bold Theatre is pleased to announce the return of BOLD Playwrights; a writers development award programme. Following on from the success of the last 2 years, this iteration will be open for submissions between February 9th – March 1st 2024.
BOLD Playwrights is designed as a process that takes writers through a series of experiences that may not be accessible to them through other means and aims to connect these stages as a clear process that informs and prepares writers for future experiences within the industry. It requires the writer to have a full-length play to work on during the programme. This can be a first draft.
We are interested in hearing from playwrights writing in any form, from any demographic and from anywhere in the UK. However this year we are asking for submissions that include two or more actors.
Specific dates and times will be set in discussion with the chosen playwrights and each writer will be given the experience of a set dramaturgical process, a workshop with actors and a director, and finally a rehearsed reading that will also act an opportunity for an industry sharing.
Delivery will take place face to face at our creative hub BOLD Elephant in Elephant & Castle or online if that works better for you, with a rehearsed reading to be staged at a central London Venue (TBC). The program will run between May – September 2024.
Past Winners.
2022/2023
Louis Rembges
Louis Rembges is a Sheffield born writer and actor living in London. His work has been performed at The Pleasance, Brixton Jamm, Brixton Base, Mountview & Bunker Theatre. He is a member of The Goat Exchange Theatre Company, performing with them recently in the US and at VAULT festival. He is an Royal Court’s Intro to Playwriting Group. Louis’ winning play is ‘It’s Raining on Prom Night’.
“Winning the BOLD Playwriting Prize opened the door to a side of the playwriting industry I wasn’t able to access before, and I’ll be forever grateful. Steve and the BOLD teams mentorship elevated my play into something I couldn’t have achieved on my own, and it was brought to life by a wonderful cast”.
Francis Grin
Francis Grin is a playwright and dramaturg based in both London and Margate. She is originally Dutch but has been working in the UK since 2010. She completed her MA in writing for performance at Goldsmiths and went on to work as the Literary Manager at the Finborough from 2012-2016. Her plays have been presented at theatres including Southwark Playhouse, The Vaults, The Space, The Bread & Roses, Soho Theatre and The Pleasance. She has been longlisted for The Bruntwood Prize, The BBC Writers room Drama and The Women’s prize for Playwriting. Francis has also co-founded Mrs C’s Collective; an associate theatre company at The Space in the Isle of Dogs. Francis’ winning play is ‘Lucy and the VR Gods’.
2021/2022
Aaron
Kilercioglu
Raised in Vienna by Turkish-Canadian parents, Aaron is a writer and director based in London. This blend of cultures illustrates his ability to translate between English, German and Turkish. His most recent play ‘The E.U. Killed my Dad’ won the Woven Voices Prize and has had a run at Jermyn Street Theatre. His previous play, ‘For a Palestinian’, enjoyed a sell-out 3 week run at the Camden People’s Theatre, before transferring to, and selling out, the Bristol Old Vic Theatre. Both are published with Methuen Drama. His previous work has been shortlisted for the Theatre503 International Playwriting Prize, and won the BOLD Playwrights Prize as well as the Methuen Drama ‘Other’ Prize. Aaron has been a member of various associations and groups including, the Old Vic Playwriting, Bush Theatre Emerging Writers, Royal Court Young Agitators, and London Library Emerging Writers. Aaron’s winning play for BOLD Playwrights is ‘The E.U. Killed my Dad’.
“BOLD Playwrights helped me kickstart my career. The support I received from Sarah challenged me to be a better and more considered writer, while the workshop with actors allowed me to see my words come to life. This scheme has opened a number of doors, which, without BOLD, might have stayed closed for a while”.
Leila Nashef
Leila Nashef is a playwright, performer and researcher living in London. Her work has been performed at VAULT Festival, Theatre 503, Southwark Playhouse, The King’s Head Theatre and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and she won the VAULT New Writers award in 2018.
“The BOLD Playwrights Scheme was an incredibly helpful, generous opportunity to work on a script with support, space, and encouragement. The dedicated, energetic team at BOLD gave huge amounts of time, energy and thought to what my story was and could be, and over the course of a year, with their guidance, the script developed enormously. The opportunity to see the play on its feet at a rehearsed reading in May was invaluable, and I’m so glad I was involved, and grateful to everyone at BOLD for their kind, insightful support.”
Jaisal
Marmion
Jaisal is a playwright and poet interested in writing about identity, multiculturalism and stories related to the Indian and Irish diasporas.
“I found being part of BOLD Playwrights a really brilliant experience. My play developed so much through collaborating with BOLD, in ways that I could never have imagined at the start. Going through a process of dramaturgy, rewriting, workshopping the play with actors and finally a rehearsed reading, felt both rigorous and a lot of fun, and taught me loads not only about my piece but also about the writing process and theatre making and collaboration generally. More than anything it was great getting to be part of BOLD, everyone was so nice and supportive, and I met lots of interesting people through the scheme. It was a super fun and creative environment to be part of.”
