The Questors Festival of New Theatre
Coming soon: The Questors Festival of New Theatre, July 2022
Bring your story from page to stage...
Submissions call out
Do
you have a unique story to tell? Do you have a voice that you think is
currently missing from the theatre? Do you want to bring your story to
life on the stage? If so,
then you are who we are searching for.
Next summer (2022) The
Questors Theatre will be opening its doors and welcoming new voices and
plays to the stage, as part of our inaugural festival of new theatre.
The festival will provide a unique platform for writers and theatre makers to share new
work, collaborate with other creatives and become part of a thriving
theatre community.
We have a limited number of slots at the
festival so for your best chance of inclusion please submit your script
as soon as possible.
Full-length & Short plays: submissions open now.
Final deadline to submit: 17th December 2021.
Who we are looking for?
We want to welcome new voices, emerging
talent and voices that haven’t been heard before to our stage. We’re
particularly interested in championing playwrights and stories that
represent the breadth of our diverse and inclusive society, especially
those that are currently underrepresented.
The Questors festival
of new theatre accepts submissions from people based in the UK and the Republic
of Ireland. We also warmly welcome local Ealing and West London based
writers to get in touch and to join our creative community.
What we are looking for?
We
are firstly looking for one-act plays (Approx: 70 min) in length to showcase at
the festival, with a particular interest in pieces that feature a
strong gender, age and diversity balance in terms of characters. We will also be looking for short plays (approx. 15-20 min) from 1st October.
There are no limits in terms of theme or time period, past, present, or future.
We
welcome experimental pieces, but these should not be dependent on
elaborate set, costume or props. We will be using The Questors studio
for all productions, so each play needs to be easily adaptable to this
space.
Please remember this is a live staged event, so play
written with a style more suited to television or film will not be
considered. We also do not accept scripts of plays that have previously
been produced professionally. If you feel that you have a piece for this
medium we suggest you consider exploring the Ealing Film Festival.
About us
Over
the past 90 years The Questors theatre company has been a proud
trailblazer in the creative community, launching the careers of
playwrights, actors and directors, celebrating unique voices and
showcasing new talent across the stage. We have been active members of
the local community and have created a thriving creative hub in our home
of Ealing, with close links to the newly formed Ealing Film Festival.
Now
it is your chance to be part of a Questors ‘First’. Share your new
writing, and help us to carry our pioneering legacy into the future.
The Essentials
We
receive a huge number of submissions. To allow for easier reading and
faster consideration, please follow the requirements below when sending
us your work:
- submit your script via our online form in Word or pdf format, using the title of your play as the name of the document.
- Remove your name and any personal details from the script itself;
- Preface the script with a list of characters;
- Follow
the standard layout for theatre plays as published by Faber, Methuen,
Oberon, Nick Hern Books or any of the other established houses
- Place
character names to the left-hand side of the dialogue (as opposed to
the screenplay layout which has names in the centre of the page);
- Add any stage directions in brackets and in italics;
- Number all pages and title any acts and scenes clearly;
- Try to avoid a break of a character’s line across a page (unless a long monologue);
- If
your play uses songs, music or references from other well-known works,
do consider this in advance. Direct quotes and usage can lead to
copyright, legal or contractual issues and unforeseen expenses.
Please
note this is our early submission phase. We will be filling the slots
for the festival as we find the right plays, so please do not leave your
submission until the last minute.
We look forward to hearing from you.
What happens after you submit?
Submissions
are read in anonymous form then discussed and reviewed by the New
Writing Group, which includes directors, actors and writers. We will
always inform you of the outcome. The large volume of submissions means
this can take about 3 months.
For the festival of new theatre the next steps are likely to be as follows:
- Resubmission after feedback (where the writing shows promise but there are fundamental issues to be resolved)
- A table read with the writer present and with feedback (for a play that needs some revision but where there is clear potential)
- A workshop run by a member of the Questors New Writing Group to help develop the play to its full potential.
- A
staged reading, script in hand, for one night as part of our QExtra
programme (for a largely finished piece of work which is ready for
independent interpretation by a director and performers);
- A full production in our 80-100–seat Studio Theatre (for a fully realised work of exceptional quality and originality);
- Informing
you that we do not wish to take the submission any further. We are
unable to enter into conversation about plays in this category.