As ever, we’re very excited to be a part of the Greater Manchester Fringe festival. And it’s all the more gratifying to be a partner of this excellent festival, because it celebrates its 15th year in 2026!
This will be the eleventh year of the WriteForTheStage Prize for New Writing, where we offer a publication with WFTS Books for the winning piece. Last year, Leeches by Kieran Scott was the winner of the prize. You can buy Kieran’s book here.
So, if you have a show on at this year’s fringe, and it’s a bold, script-driven piece of theatre, we want to hear from you.
What is the WriteForTheStage Prize for New Writing?
The WriteForTheStage Prize for New Writing, held annually at the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival, has become a vital platform for emerging playwrights. Its mission is simple: to spotlight script-based theatre that pushes boundaries, interrogates contemporary issues, and gives voice to stories that might otherwise remain unheard.
Last year’s winner, Leeches by Kieran Scott, exemplified that ethos. Longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2022, the play had already attracted attention for its daring exploration of social unrest, insecurity, and the malleability of truth.
What Leeches Is About
At its core, Leeches is a play about three characters whose lives become dangerously entangled in the aftermath of an alleged act of violence at a protest.
- A woman in a pink fleece
- A boy dancing before a shocking scene
- A protest that grips the city centre
From these fragments, Scott constructs a taut narrative that interrogates how individuals exploit chaos, how insecurity drives desire, and how objective facts can be twisted into malleable narratives.
Against the backdrop of mounting social unrest, the play asks: What happens when personal ambition collides with collective trauma?
Comments from the Kieran Scott
We asked Kieran what taking part in the Greater Manchester Fringe meant for his company, and how it felt to have won the WriteForTheStage Prize for New Writing.
I think the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival is a great platform for a variety of different art forms, but what I think is particularly unique is the WriteForTheStage prize, who award two prizes for new writing at the festival each year.
The prize is a great opportunity for emerging writers to gain acknowledgment from a panel of local industry professionals for their work.
It can be difficult at times to gain exposure as a writer, but the WriteForTheStage award has provided me with an invaluable platform going forward. I feel really honoured to have won it.
Kieran Scott
Why This Prize Matters
The WriteForTheStage Prize is a celebration of the newest work emerging from the vibrant Manchester fringe scene.
Submissions must be plays or script-based monologues, performed as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe programme. Our judges attend performances, read scripts, and select winners based on dramaturgical strength and theatrical potential.
For winners, the prize offers publication with WriteForTheStage Books. This is not just a trophy—it is a tangible legacy. Playwrights see their work in print, accessible to directors, actors, and readers worldwide.
Who are the judges?
Our judges are theatre professionals with vast experience of dramaturgy, mentoring, and producing theatrical work in fringe venues and regional theatres across the UK.
Our panel as it stands includes:
- Dr. Stephen M Hornby: Stephen is a multi‑award‑winning writer‑director who dramatises archives, teaches widely, leads Inkbrew Productions, and is the UK’s first LGBT+ History Month National Playwright in Residence.
- Mike Heath: an award-winning playwright and novelist and lead tutor at WriteForTheStage. Mike’s works have been performed widely around the UK and as far afield as Australia.
- Rob Johnston: an award-winning, Manchester-based playwright and the founder of Breathe Out Theatre company. With over 30 professionally staged plays, he is a prominent figure in the North West’s independent theatre scene.
- Jayne Marshall: an award-winning British playwright and producer, specialising in professional, community-focused theatre specifically designed to reach isolated and vulnerable people. A BBC Talent Award-winner.
- Richard Douglas: alumni of WriteForTheStage, Richard has been writing for the stage for over a decade, specialising in ensemble comedy and character-based monologue.
- Helen Parry: a well-known face on the Manchester theatre scene, Helen is a freelance director and Arden School of Theatre tutor and has been developing new writing for over twenty years.
- Lisa Moore: actor/writer/educator known by almost everyone performing on the Manchester theatre circuit. A long-standing Salford Uni lecturer, Lisa is now developing new solo work and has been involved in developing new writing for decades.
Previous winners of The Prize for New Writing
Previous winners include A Quick Guide to Ruining Your Life (2019) by Laura Harper and With Love, Mr Gay (2024) by Joshua Val Martin, each reflecting the diversity of voices nurtured by the Greater Manchester Fringe and celebrated through our prize.
How to apply for the 2026 prize
Click here for all the information you need, including the full list of previous winners and how to apply for this year’s prize.
Our new courses: Top of the Stack
If you’re struggling to get your work past the first stage of writing competitions, then we have a course just for you.
Our new course Top of the Stack is all about ensuring your play hits the ground running from the opening line. We explore how to develop an existing play for maximum impact or start something new.
Find out more here.
And don’t forget, we’re offering our popular Finding Starting Points course for free until the end of September 2026.
Thanks for reading.
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