The Emerging Playwrights Fund (the “Fund”) is calling theatrical visionaries who are ready to push boundaries and captivate audiences through the intimate, limitless world of audio drama.
This is storytelling without walls. Your words, world-class performers, and millions of listeners waiting to be transported.
Who Should Apply:
We're seeking early-career theatrical writers who craft immersive fictional experiences that engage, entertain, and inspire. We value diverse perspectives, innovative approaches to form, and stories that harness the unique intimacy and immediacy of audio storytelling. Whether your work explores internal worlds through sound, creates vivid landscapes through language, or experiments with narrative structure—if it pushes boundaries and demands to be heard, we want it.
For this cycle, we're particularly interested in original audio dramas in the following genres:
- Action & Adventure
- including Mystery, Thrillers, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
- Core Fiction
- including Contemporary Fiction, Romance, and Literary Companion Pieces
About the Fund:
Audible is a leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling. Since 2017, our theater initiative, which includes the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City, has been built on one mission: to radically increase access to exceptional plays and performances.
The Emerging Playwrights Fund sits at the heart of that mission. We invest in and nurture self-identifying emerging playwrights—some of the most inventive, creative, and provocative storytellers working today. Through the Fund, we connect extraordinary performers with remarkable original work, amplifying new voices and bringing them to millions of listeners. To date, Audible Theater has commissioned 50 projects through the Fund. We support the creation of original dramatic work written with audio in mind, but theatrical in spirit—stories that live and breathe in the listener's imagination.
What the Fund Provides:
Audible will select up to five applicants to receive a fee of $25,000 each to write and develop an original audio play. In addition to the fee, Audible may provide the selected applicants with creative and logistical resources to assist each artist and project, including but not limited to: development and production fees, casting expertise and talent budget, access to Audible’s state-of-the-art studio and production equipment.
Audible is dedicated to commissioning, developing, and producing work that reflects the diversity of our listeners and our world. We actively encourage submissions from emerging playwrights of all races, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, and backgrounds.
Your voice, amplified.
Submission Guidelines:
Submissions will be accepted from September 23, 2026 – November 18, 2026 (11:59PM EST).
- Playwright Application
- One full-length script for an original play (in English language only) that represents your voice ("Script”). Submitted as a pdf or word doc
- A professional biography (up to 300 words)
- A pitch or summary for an original audio play (Action & Adventure OR Core Fiction preferred)
For more information and to apply, click the Opportunity Info link below!
The Company Placement role will run from January 2027 through to October 2027 and is designed for a theatre-maker who wants to learn more about running a theatre company in Scotland.
The Framework team will work with you to agree a bespoke programme of activity that reflects your needs, interests and availability over the period so that you are able to keep other commitments and/or manage your own access needs or caring responsibilities during this time.
Key Information:
- Deadline: Monday 16 November, 5pm
- Fee: £3,000 (20 days at £150/day)
- Commitment: 20 days of ad-hoc work over a 10-month period (January 2027 to October 2027, estimated at 2 days per month)
For more information and to apply, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Applications are now OPEN for Young Techs 2027.
Our Young Techs programme is a FREE introductory training programme for 18–25-year-olds who want to develop practical skills and explore a career in backstage theatre.
This introductory training programme gives participants hands-on experience in lighting, sound and stagecraft, working alongside professional theatre technicians and industry practitioners.
Course Summary:
- WHAT? Stratford East's Young Technicians Course
- WHO? Young people aged 18-25 from East London*
- DATES? January - March 2027
- WHERE? Theatre Royal Stratford East, E15 1BN and other locations in London
- HOW MUCH? FREE
- DEADLINE: Midday on Wednesday 11 November 2026
All eligible applicants will be invited to join us at a Selection/Interview workshop at Stratford East on Wednesday 9 December, 4:00-5:15pm or 6:30-7:45pm.
Participants on this programme will be paid a training bursary when working on specific shows.
For more information and to apply, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Learn practical voice techniques over 8 weeks to develop a stronger, more confident voice for performance, public speaking, and everyday communication.
Key information:
- Dates: 26 January - 16 March 2027
- Time: Tuesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: No experience needed
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £395
What will this course help you achieve?
- Explore fundamental voice techniques to improve breath control and support, vocal strength and expression through practical work
- Learn about and explore key aspects of speech such as consonants, vowels and tone
- Build confidence in managing nerves and performing under pressure
- Learn practical vocal warm-ups you can use before performances, presentations and public speaking situations
- Experience speech in the present moment, free your voice and find a true connection to the words you speak through practical work with texts
- At the end of the course, you will be invited to perform a poem and a piece (acting monologue or public speech) to apply your learning in context
What will you leave with?
- Confidence using your voice in performance, public speaking and professional settings
- Practical vocal techniques you can continue using and developing beyond the course
- A stronger understanding of how breath, voice and speech work together to support effective communication
- Strategies for managing nerves and speaking with greater ease in front of an audience
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
This 8-week course is aimed at those who want to develop their playwriting further with an established playwright.
Key information:
- Dates: 28 January - 18 March 2027
- Time: Thursdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: Introductory playwriting experience required or completed our Playwriting: An Introduction short course
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £395
What will this course help you achieve?
- Expand your initial scene or treatment to several key scenes
- Develop scenes with more compelling character relationships that drive dramatic action
- Challenge yourself to become more ambitious in your writing - thinking beyond everyday lived experience towards exploring the greater and more expressive possibilities of theatre
- Explore the structure of your play scene by scene for maximum effect
- Refine and develop your unique voice as a playwright
- Organise your own readings, workshops and feedback sessions in the future
What will you leave with?
- Significant progress on your play and a clearer path towards completing your script
- More developed scenes, characters and dramatic relationships
- A stronger understanding of theatrical storytelling and how to build a play that engages an audience
- Practical techniques for redrafting, developing and strengthening your writing
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Work with an established playwright over 8 weeks to explore the fundamentals of writing a play.
Key information:
- Dates: 27 January - 17 March 2027
- Time: Wednesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: No experience needed
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £395
What will this course help you achieve?
- Turn your ideas into the foundations of a play with guidance from an established playwright
- Develop compelling characters, a structure plot, dramatic action and dialogue that engage an audience
- Discover and strengthen your unique voice as a writer
- Learn how playwrights develop, redraft and refine their work through feedback and reflection
- Gain insight into how new writing reaches theatre companies, producers and publishers
- Experience the excitement of hearing your work brought to life by actors
What will you leave with?
- Confidence in your ability to generate, develop and shape ideas for the stage
- Ideas for a play, a developed character breakdown and a completed first scene
- First-hand experience of seeing your writing performed and understanding how it works in practice
- A clearer sense of your next creative step, whether that’s completing your play or progressing to Playwriting: Intermediate
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
This 8-week course takes a multidisciplinary approach to the creation of solo performance for actors, writers, and artists who want to experiment with this eclectic form.
Key information:
- Dates: 27 January - 20 March 2027
- Time: Wednesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: Actors, writers, and performers with some experience
- Class size: 14
- Course fee: £450
What will this course help you achieve?
- Create and develop original solo performance work using techniques drawn from contemporary performance, live art, alt-cabaret, experimental comedy, and physical & postdramatic theatre lineages
- Turn lived experience and autobiographical material into compelling performance
- Experiment with persona, audience relationship, performance text, and the expressive potential of the body
- Develop a distinctive comic and performance voice through the exploration of levity and gravity
- Build confidence in creating, testing, and refining work through practical exercises, assignments, and feedback
- Create and share work-in-progress extracts of a solo performance for an invited audience
What will you leave with?
- A toolkit of creative techniques for generating and shaping solo performance work
- Work-in-progress extracts of your own solo piece, developed over the course
- The experience of sharing your work with an invited audience
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Build your screen acting skills by performing scenes from film, television and commercial genres on this 8 week evening course.
Key information:
- Dates: 25 January - 17 March 2027
- Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: Introductory acting experience required
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £625
What will this course help you achieve?
- Create believable performances by working on monologues and duologues from film, television, and commercial genres
- Explore acting techniques that strengthen your imagination, authenticity, and ability to connect with an audience on screen
- Learn how to adapt your performance to different camera setups and filming environments
- Gain insight into the casting and audition process for film, television, and commercials
- Experience what screen acting is like using rehearsal and camera-based exercises
What will you leave with?
- Confidence performing on camera and bringing characters to life on screen
- Practical screen acting techniques you can continue developing beyond the course
- Experience working with monologues, duologues and scenes across a range of screen genres
- First-hand understanding of how acting for camera differs from stage performance
- Insight into the realities of casting, auditions and the screen industry
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Advance your acting skills through contemporary scene work and character exploration twice a week over 8 weeks.
Key information:
- Dates: 25 January - 17 March 2027
- Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: Introductory acting experience required or completed our “Acting: An Introduction” short course
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £595
What will this course help you achieve?
- Train with techniques drawn from a range of practices including Stanislavski, Demidov and Viewpoints
- Develop the skills, habits and disciplines professional actors use to prepare, rehearse and perform
- Explore how text, casting and performance choices shape the stories we tell and reflect the world around us
- Contribute to an ensemble and collaborate creatively with other performers
What will you leave with?
- Experience applying a range of acting approaches to contemporary texts and characters
- Enhanced rehearsal, ensemble and collaboration skills developed through practical performance work
- First-hand experience of conservatoire-style actor training and the disciplines professional performers develop
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
Always wanted to act? Discover what professional actor training is really like twice a week over 8 weeks in this evening course.
Key information:
- Dates: 25 January - 17 March 2027
- Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 7pm - 9:30pm
- Location: In person, Swiss Cottage Campus
- Experience level: No previous acting experience required
- Class size: 16
- Course fee: £595
What will this course help you achieve?
- Learn the techniques actors use to create truthful, engaging performances
- Bring characters to life through imagination, improvisation and creative exploration
- Develop greater confidence, presence and self-expression through practical voice and movement techniques
- Experience the process of taking a scene from page to performance through rehearsal and scene work
What will you leave with?
- Confidence performing and expressing yourself in front of others
- A toolkit of practical acting techniques you can continue developing beyond the course
- First-hand experience of conservatoire-style actor training and the skills professional performers develop
- Experience bringing scripts to life through scene work, rehearsal and performance
- A clearer understanding of whether further acting training, drama school or performance opportunities are right for you
For more information and to book your place, click the Opportunity Info link below!
