Climate Playwriting Prize
The Climate Playwriting Prize 2026 will uncover the most exciting new plays about the climate crisis, and support them to find their audiences.
Submissions open: June 2026
Deadline: 1 September 2026
About the Climate Playwriting Prize
The Climate Playwriting Prize aims to empower the theatre industry into new climate conversations, drawing on the skills of storytellers and artists to inspire societal shifts towards a restorative relationship with nature
To enter, writers must submit unproduced full-length stage plays in the English language that address the climate and nature crisis. For this prize, ‘climate’ is defined expansively: it includes environmental change s in the broadest sense , but also the social, political, and cultural response . The Climate Playwriting Prize is open to plays that connect with the widest possible audience and respond to living through this profound time in human history.
Aside from this prize encouraging the creation of bold new plays, the prizes that comes with being a winning playwright are:
- A cash prize of £15,000
- Dramaturgical support on the development of the play to rehearsal draft with specialists at the Globe, Climate Spring and Fern Culture
- Industry exposure to leading theatre professionals
- The winning play will be optioned for production at the Globe, with an aspiration to produce, or supported by the award producers to find a home for the play.
Key Dates
Workshop: Wed 6 May
Submissions open: June 2026
Deadline: 1 September 2026
Winners announced: Winter 2026
You can find out more about the prize and what the judges are looking for on Shakespeare’s Globe website here.
Regional and touring theatre is playing a vital role in engaging audiences, and we are partnering with organisations all around the country to deliver workshops to writers, unlocking how they might want to tell their climate story. – Shakespeare’s Globe
The Climate Playwriting Prize is a partnership between:
Shakespeare’s Globe | Climate Spring | Fern Culture
Delivered in association with:
Chichester Festival Theatre | Exeter Northcott Theatre | Leeds Playhouse | Lyric Theatre Belfast | Mercury Theatre Colchester | New Earth Theatre | Pentabus Theatre | Tiata Fahodzi