The South-West playwright is among four writers to be awarded a £15,000 bursary.
South-West playwright Sarah Dickenson is one of four writers to each be awarded a £15,000 bursary to write a new play. She will work on a joint placement between Exeter Northcott Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe, as part of the 2025 Playwrights ’73 scheme, which attaches writers to a building as they develop their latest play.
Sarah Dickenson is a beloved artist to all of us at The Globe and Exeter Northcott, and with The Commotion Time, a major 5-star hit at the Northcott, has proved herself to be a phenomenal playwright. We are all thrilled to be working with her on a new play as part of Playwrights ‘73.
Both venues have a rich and proud history of producing new plays, and in these difficult times for new work, collaboration is vital. We can’t wait for this partnership to begin, and to find out what Sarah writes for our theatres.
Martin Berry, Exeter Northcott Creative Director and Joint Chief Executive, and Guy Jones, New Work Manager at Shakespeare’s Globe
The world premiere of The Commotion Time was performed in October 2024, featuring a 7-strong professional cast and 44 local choir and ensemble members. The production marked our return to producing drama after a 3-year hiatus, and was the first show directed for the theatre by our Creative Director Martin Berry.
The story gave voice to the women at the centre of their communities during an extraordinary moment in local history: the Prayer Book Rebellion and Western Rising, when Cornish and Devonian people marched on Exeter to protest religious reform.
Photo by Craig Fuller
I am thrilled that I am going to have the opportunity to be fostered by both the Northcott and Shakespeare’s Globe for this residency – two theatres whose work I have long been passionate about and whose expertise on the dynamic between the stage, the audience and the world beyond the playhouse I am keen to learn from. With them I intend to prioritise understanding more about my practice and process as a playwright, building on what I learned from The Commotion Time about collaborating with spaces, creatives, experts and communities to build big-hearted, big-thinking plays that seize our shared history to illuminate our present and spur us on together.
I am so grateful to Peggy Ramsay, Exeter Northcott and The Globe for this opportunity and can’t wait to start!
Sarah Dickenson
The other playwrights – Tife Kusoro, Kat Rose Martin and Ciara Elizabeth Smyth – will work with the Royal Court, Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, and Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre respectively, with all four writers given 18 months to craft their projects.
The award is primarily funded by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation, with support from The Maria Björnson Memorial Fund. Sonia Friedman Productions awards £7,500 to the best play written on the scheme each year. Previous playwrights who have participated include James Graham, Chris Bush, Ella Hickson, Nick Payne, Bola Agbaje, Richard Bean and Winsome Pinnock.
The judging panel consists of Will Mortimer, Georgia Gatti, Dinah Wood, Jack Bradley, and playwright Beth Steel (The House of Shades, Labyrinth, Wonderland).
What an incredible and rare scheme this is. An opportunity for four playwrights to have the time to dream and bring their next play into the world. The fact that each writer has the support and investment of a theatre makes this even rarer. I was bowled over by the brilliance of these writers’ plays, and I can’t wait to see what they conjure up next.
Beth Steel
This is just one of the ways we’re supporting South West artists to develop and showcase their work.
FIND OUT MOREYOU MAY ALSO LIKE