New Playwrights Programme Pilot 2009
The Literary Department is delighted announce the pilot of a new development initiative, the New Playwrights Programme. The six writers taking part in this pilot programme are: Aidan Harney, Lisa Keogh, Shona McCarthy, Jody O’Neill, Neil Sharpson and Lisa Tierney-Keogh.
The scheme offers these up-and-coming playwrights the chance to hone, polish and experiment with their writing skills. Participants will take part in a series of workshops with Irish and international theatre-makers as well as talks with eminent writers, and attend rehearsals and confer with Irish theatre professionals within the Abbey and in the greater Irish theatre sector.
The New Playwrights Programme will focus on developing the writer as opposed to a specific play. In doing so, it both makes a long-term investment in Ireland’s literary and theatrical culture, and cultivates a pool of exciting new Irish playwrights.
This is an annual programme. Writers who submit their work as an unsolicited manuscript to the Abbey’s Literary Department will automatically be considered for the New Playwrights Programme in subsequent years.
