Climate Storytelling for the Theatre: A Workshop for Playwrights

Curious about telling stories about climate and nature on stage?  Join one of our upcoming workshops designed to support writers finding their own climate drama to share.

These sessions are an opportunity to think creatively and critically about how theatre can respond to the defining challenge of our time. Together we’ll explore how climate stories can become compelling drama: from finding the human stakes inside global issues to building characters, conflict, and theatrical worlds. Each workshop is led by an experienced writer, director or dramaturg, and will include practical exploration of how to write your climate play, a wider discussion about the kinds of climate stories we need now, and a conversation with a relevant environmental expert, telling their own story of change. 

Whether you’re already developing an idea or just beginning to think about writing about the climate, these workshops are a space to test ideas, ask questions, and connect with other writers engaging with the climate crisis. 

The workshops are intended for those interested in finding out more about, and potentially submitting a play for, the Climate Playwriting Prize. We expect writers who attend to be eligible to apply for the prize (prize criteria are here). This means you will have had some previous professional experience of script writing, such as participating in a talent development scheme, staging an R&D sharing or having a script commissioned. No prior knowledge of climate science is required – just curiosity, imagination, and a desire to tell powerful stories.

The Climate Playwriting Prize is a partnership between Shakespeare’s Globe, Climate Spring and Fern Culture, in association with Chichester Festival Theatre, Exeter Northcott Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Mercury Theatre Colchester, New Earth, Pentabus and tiata fahodzi.