Strange Town offers opportunities in the performing arts to young people in Edinburgh. They are looking to commission up to two early-career playwrights to write short plays to be performed by their youth theatre groups. They would be between 30-60 minutes long and would be shown for two performances in June 2023 at the Scottish Storytelling Centre.

These plays will be performed by their two 11-14s classes. Each class typically contains 20 members, and the plays would need to have at least one part for all of them.

Strange Town strongly prefer their young people to play parts written for their age (e.g 11–14-year-olds playing characters aged 11-14) rather than pretending to be adults. There is some flexibility around this in pantomime scripts or in scripts with non-human characters (eg magical creatures, monsters etc)

For the June 2023 plays, they would like our writers to base their ideas around the themes of Childhood and/or Heritage.

Each playwright will be paid a small fee for their writing. As a small charity, Strange Town’s resources are limited and unfortunately do not allow them to pay a fully professional rate. However, they endeavour to help develop their writers fully and provide every assistance possible, particularly for those for whom this may be the first time they have ever been paid for their writing. They hope that by working with Strange Town, they can be the first step that helps these writers to fully professional writing careers of their own.

If you are interested, please send the following things:

– A short pitch (no more than one page) for a play for 11-14s (you are welcome to send more than one).

– A writing sample from a stage play of no more than 10 pages that you think best showcases your ability. This does not have to be a finished play or have had a previous performance. It could also be a newly written sample of one of your pitches. Examples of writing for performance by young people are preferred.

– A short bio/CV detailing your writing experience to date (no more than two pages)

Please send these to James at james@strangetown.org.uk by no later than Mon 22 August 2022, 5pm.

Any necessary interviews will be held the week commencing Mon 29 August 2022 either online or in-person. Please inform us during your application if there are dates you are unable to make during this week.