Playwriting Award – Shortlist Announcement

In Spring of this year, Polka launched our inaugural Playwriting Award. The only one of its kind, we wanted to recognise the exceptional talent, rigor and quality needed to write for 7-13 year olds, as we are acutely aware that no other major Playwriting Awards have shortlisted, or indeed allow for, children’s theatre submissions. Our aim was to discover exciting, new work that appealed directly to an age group, who are so often overlooked and under catered for in the theatre sector.

Over the course of three months, we ran three free online masterclasses with Hattie Naylor, Piers Torday and Patrick Hughes, introducing writers to the world of Young Audience script development, and were delighted to receive nearly 100 entries to our award by the deadline.

With a brilliant reading panel of six leading writers, dramaturgs and directors who read every single entry anonymously, we selected a shortlist of six scripts. It was integral that young people were involved in the final selection process, ensuring the plays’ appeal was genuine, so we worked with Polka’s graduate panel to collate detailed feedback and interest on the shortlist, to be able to pass on to our judging panel of Chino Odimba, Vicky Ireland and Joseph Coelho.

The shortlist shows an incredible range of exciting ideas, and we are delighted that such diverse and unique storytelling has emerged through the process!

• Joe Ward Munrow – ‘Dare – The Story of the Dog Bear’
• Jennifer Claessen – ‘Adventures in a Time Travelling Caravan with my Nan’
• Mahad Ali – ‘Rocket Riri’
• Sarah Middleton – ‘Dweeb-a-Mania’
• Tatty Hennessy – ‘The Elephant’
• Tristan Bernays – ‘Bigfoot’s Big Brother’

L-R: Joe Ward Munrow, Jennifer Claessen, Mahad Ali, Sarah Middleton, Tatty Hennessy, Tristan Bernays.

The judges will deliberate, and chose a winning entry from this shortlist, which will be announced in January 2025.

The winning script will receive a full staging of the play in Polka’s Adventure Theatre, and publication with Methuen Drama.

The Award is generously funded by The Garek Trust, supported by Cockayne and London Community Foundation and the award partner is Methuen Drama.