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Have you ever dreamt of writing a play? Of having something you've written staged in London's West End by a top theatre director? Of seeing your words brought to life by a cast of leading professional actors? Channel 4's The Play's The Thing will give you the opportunity to make the dream come true.
London's West End theatres are famous throughout the world for their lavish musicals and revivals of classic plays. But to keep the West End healthy and vibrant, it also needs new plays, which rarely succeed in this high-risk environment. So Channel 4, with its long-recognised association with new writing, is setting up a nationwide search for new plays by new writers to enliven and invigorate the West End stage.
Those who make it onto the shortlist will feature in our new television series, The Play's The Thing. We will follow the writers through the process of selection and development as their play is considered for a professional West End production, with all the challenges that entails.
With support from a variety of theatre professionals, their ideas will be workshopped and developed and ultimately one of them will see their play produced in a major West End theatre by top producer Sonia Friedman. The programme will gain unprecedented access behind the scenes of commercial theatre, and follow Sonia and her team through all the steps of the production process right through to the glamorous opening night.
So now's your chance. Don't be put off if you've never tried anything like this before -and don't worry if you haven’t written a play yet. You don't have to write a whole play straightaway. If you have a strong idea or a compelling story to tell that you think will appeal to our panel of professionals, we really want to hear from you.
