120 plays and 35 years later, Theatre West is celebrating its coral anniversary with a brand new project! In a tough new writing landscape, but with our new BOV Associate Company residency, we want the women in our region to get writing over the next 18 months. Our aim is to mark 2026, doing what we do best, with a season of stonking new work.
We've had a look back at our archives and pulled out ten well loved marketing images to get the creative juices flowing.
To see the ten images, please click here
At the tail-end of 2024 we offered the opportunity to choose one of these images as a jumping off point to write a ten minute piece with a maximum of two characters.
And we wanted to know how the picture inspired the script.
The submission deadline has now passed, and those people that expressed an interest in providing a script were invited to attend a number of online workshops provided by industry professionals :
By April 2025 eight writers will be selected to go on to the next stage of the project by a panel including the Theatre West Artistic Directors and representatives from Bristol Old Vic, and their scripts will receive a public reading.
The eight chosen writers will have the opportunity to write an hour-long script, which could be a development of their short play or something entirely different (though it can't be an existing script). We will support the writers by pairing them with a dramaturg, facilitating online readings of their work during the six month development process and pay them a small writing fee. As writing is solitary and can be lonely we will also bring the writers together, either online or in person, to share their experiences.
A panel including the Theatre West Artistic Directors and representatives from Bristol Old Vic will choose three scripts for further development
Over the following six months, working with a dramaturg, the three writers will hone their script to performance quality and, subject to securing further funding including royalty fees, Theatre West plan to produce them in venues around the south-west in autumn 2026.