Pentabus is proud to announce that the Jerwood Foundation have generously provided the bursary for Pentabus Writer in Residence 2024/25. Applications are now open.

The £12,000 bursary is open to professional playwrights in the early stages of their career, giving them the opportunity to spend up to a year with Pentabus in South Shropshire.  

During their time with Pentabus, the recipient will be supported to write at least one new full-length play or piece of theatre, while learning more about how a professional theatre company works.

Here's what some of our previous Bursary winners have said about the opportunity: 

Pentabus believed in me from early in my playwriting journey – when I applied to be the CRF Writer In Residence, I’d written only one full length play, a monologue about a girl from a rural council estate in Chippenham, Wiltshire. They have literally enabled me to be a playwright, as a writer from a poor working-class background, with no financial safety net to fall back on, I wouldn’t have been able to afford to develop my writing and forge a career as a playwright without their invaluable support.

Florence Espeut-Nickless, currently under commission to the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic.

‘It’s life-changing. It’s time. It’s support and expertise. And it’s money. The pandemic has presented its own challenges but Pentabus have been supportive and considerate. The CRF Residence offers a different way of doing things and a different way of thinking – it’s changing my work, and it’s changed my life.’

Tom Powell, Clive Richards Foundation Writer in Residence 2020/21 and Papatango Prize Winner 2021 and his play Surfacing has just completed a UK tour.

'This is an incredible opportunity if you are in need of time and space to develop your writing. There is a saying, ‘write what you know’, while this is a great place to start, there comes a point when the stories needed to be told exceed your own experience. The residency has afforded me the time to THINK BIG.  This bursary is a chance for you to challenge yourself and feel supported in the process. Apply now!'

Sophie Ellerby, Clive Richards Foundation Writer in Residence 2018/19 and is about to shoot Care, a short with Stef O’Driscoll.

‘I WROTE. I wrote so much. Because Pentabus gave me that time and space to just scribble away, and I can never thank them enough for that. They made me realise what I want to write and why I want to write it.’      

Tim Foley, 2016/17 Channel 4 Writer in Residence and Bruntwood Award Winner 2017, won the Bruntwood Judges Prize for Electric Rosary, and his play Driftwood recently toured the UK, produced by Pentabus and ThickSkin.

For more information and to apply click here.