Prizes & Awards

Woven Voices Prize 2025

 

The Gate is delighted to be partnering with Woven Voices to present the Woven Voices Prize for Playwriting. This prestigious award creates a vital pathway for migrant artists in the UK to have their work read, shared and developed, bringing their stories to life.

Now in its third year, the Woven Voices Prize builds on the success of its previous editions, celebrating migrant writers and their vital contributions to a global, multicultural Britain. At the Gate, we’re deeply committed to showcasing international theatre, and we’re proud to be partnering with Woven Voices to make it possible for more migrant voices to be heard on UK stages.

The winning playwright will receive a commission of £3500, and a bespoke R&D process for the winning script which includes a further 3 weeks of paid development time. Two of these weeks will include additional creative team members and cast, culminating in an optional public sharing.

The first runner up will receive a commission of £750 and up to three runners up will be offered the opportunity to work with a Director and Performers for a day to produce a rehearsed reading which will be professionally filmed for their portfolio.

In addition, Woven Voices will produce new episodes of their Migreatives podcast featuring the winner and runners up of the prize. All play submissions will be read by a minimum of two paid readers, one of whom is guaranteed to be a first generation migrant artist themselves. All readers will take part in anti-bias training, developed in previous years by Global Voices.

The submission window for applications is now open and will close on the 27th July. See below for more information on how to apply.

FAQs

What is the Woven Voices Prize

The Woven Voices Prize is an open invitation to all migrant writers in the UK to share outstanding new work for the stage.

The aim of the prize is to celebrate and platform migrant writers, an underrepresented demographic on UK theatre stages. Around 17% of the UK population and 40% of London’s population were born outside the UK. The Woven Voices Prize celebrates this rich source of creativity. It is a proclamation of a global, multicultural Britain, and it opposes the ‘Little England’ mentality of isolationism.

Submitted plays might be personal, political, funny, or serious. They might be set in the UK or abroad. They might be set today or a thousand years in the past. They do not have to be about migrants or migration. All we ask is that they tell a story.

Who is eligible to apply for the prize?

Eligibility

The Woven Voices Prize is open to those who primarily live and work in the UK, who identify as a ‘migrant’. Recognising that this is a sometimes-fluid category, we draw on the Migrants in Theatre definition of ‘migrant’, which includes those who:

  • do not hold a British passport but reside primarily in the UK

  • have moved to the UK after spending formative years abroad

  • have moved to the UK as a child, is culturally British but is sometimes seen as a migrant or sees themselves as a migrant

  • weren’t born in the UK and have English as a second language

  • are an asylum seeker, a refugee or undocumented in the UK

Ultimately, candidates are the best judge of whether they identify as a migrant. There is no age limit, and no minimum or maximum level of experience to enter.

Submitted scripts must be an original, unpublished and unproduced piece of work, having both (a) had no more than 6 performances for which people could buy tickets and (b) not received a professional review. Scripts may call for music or singing but should not be musicals or pantomimes, nor should they be translations, children’s plays, or adaptations of other plays or other works in other media (the only exception might be a re-telling of an ancient story or myth where no direct use is made of another writer’s work.)

Scripts may be written by more than one writer, but in this situation both writers must meet the definitions above.

The prize accepts one script per candidate and looks for complete, full-length scripts (having a running time of at least 60 minutes), performable with a maximum of six actors.

Scripts must be written primarily in English, and accessible to an English-speaking audience. Recognising that English is a language that takes many forms, variants and dialects, and that English proficiency can be a barrier to those writing in English for whom this may not be their first language, the judging process takes account of this and seeks not to discriminate on this basis.

What scripts are eligible?

  • The script must be an original, unpublished and unproduced piece of work. ‘Unproduced’ is defined as having both (a) had no more than 6 performances for which people could buy tickets and (b) not having received a professional review.
  • Any scripts that have been published or produced will be automatically disqualified.
  • Translations, children’s plays, adaptations of other plays or other works in other media (e.g. novels, musicals, films) are not eligible. The only exception might be a re-telling of an ancient story or myth where no direct use is made of another writer’s work. Scripts may be written by more than one writer, but in this situation both writers must meet the eligibility criteria for entrants in Appendix 1.
  • A play can be submitted that has previously been submitted to the Prize only if the play has been significantly developed since. Entrants may submit only one script.

How to apply

Scripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word or PDF formats only.

As a separate attachment, you should include a cover letter including your professional name, the title of your play, your full contact details (email and telephone number) and a brief description of your migrant identity (e.g. where you were born / grew up).

Entry to the prize is anonymous. Please ensure that your script, including the file title, contains no mention of your name or email address.

Please do not include a synopsis or CV.

All entries should include page numbers on every page.

All entries & queries should be sent to [email protected]

Terms and Conditions

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