StageWrite

StageWrite is a hot house for the development of new writing for theatre, designed to grow plays from page to performance, and 2025 is its twelfth year.  We’re delighted to partner with The Place Theatre, Bedford: the home of StageWrite.

Running since 2013, StageWrite is a regular part of the artistic seasons at The Place Theatre in Bedford, bringing you two brand new plays of between 30 and 60 minutes in length as double bills over one evening.  All the plays are works-in-progress and allow for a more developed experience than a rehearsed reading (where actors simply read the play out loud).  Each is followed by a short Q&A session with the writer, director and actors – audience members have the chance to ask questions and give their opinion on what they’ve seen.

So how does this help the creative process..? Here’s what playwright James Rushbrooke, whose work was featured for Spring 2025, says about why it’s so worthwhile. We asked him: What would you say to a writer thinking about submitting their work to StageWrite?

“Writing something is easy. Writing something good is much harder. At some point, tweaking your script alone in a vacuum stops being useful. You need to throw it into the creative colander and let others help sift out the lumps. Only when you see your words performed—live, in front of an audience—do you really understand what’s working and what’s not. The missed laughs, the flat dialogue, the tension that prematurely fizzles. Writers love to treat scripts like sacred objects and protect them from the machinations of other creatives. This may be true of your final published masterpiece, but at birth, your play needs a sharp slap on the backside as a welcome to the world. That’s what StageWrite does—it’s a top-tier creative midwife made up of brilliant actors and dramaturgs. Submit your script. Help it breathe.”
How about the experience for a writer – is it useful?
Here’s what Gray Robert Brown (writer of The Red Fox, featured at StageWrite in October 2024) said about working with us:
“I cannot recommend working with LifeBox on StageWrite enough. With very minimal rehearsal time and almost no guidance from me (bar the script itself) the actors and director brought to life what I intended with impressive clarity and professionalism. But they also brought new ideas which enhanced the script and revealed to me new avenues within the story that I’d never seen before! (I’ve already added one or two of the gestures the actors improvised to the actual script!!) The lighting and sound was spot-on and again impressively slick given the tight turnaround. It really helped me to see the play almost-fully-released rather than just a sit-down reading. The feedback afterwards was forthcoming, extremely encouraging, and constructive, and made me feel galvanised to continue developing this play. A big big thank you to all!”

Previous StageWrite plays that we have subsequently staged as fully developed productions are: ‘Confetti’ by Tim Foley; ‘Philadelphia’ by Jonathan Bousted; ‘Intercourse’ by Jonathan Skinner;  ‘The Interview Stage’ by Chris Loft; ‘Failing At Failing’ by Serafina Cusack; ‘Forty-Two Times Around The Sun’ by Chris Pike and ‘Little Shining Eyes’ by Poppy Hollman.

 

Who is StageWrite?

StageWrite is a collaboration between actor/directors Cally, Phil and Harri, who have worked together since 2013 when Phil and Harri founded LifeBox. The aim: to add to the theatrical landscape of Bedford by supporting the production of new writing, creating opportunities for writers, actors and directors and working in partnership with local professionals.

 

What is StageWrite for?

StageWrite is a platform for emerging and established writers to see their work up on its feet in front of an audience, performed semi-staged (script-in-hand) by professional actors.  This allows the writer to gain multiple perspectives about their work so that they can develop it further based on the feedback of the actors, director and audience members.

 

SUBMITTING TO STAGEWRITE

StageWrite is a regular part of the artistic seasons at The Place Theatre, Bedford.  Our next StageWrite event will happen in spring 2026. We’re not yet open for submissions, but keep an eye on the website and our Instagram. How does it work? Our panel read and shortlist scripts that are submitted.  We then do a table read with actors and subsequently announce the two chosen plays.

If you have work you would like to submit, please read the brief below and follow us on Instagram for updates @lifeboxtheatre so that you know when we’re open to receive scripts.

We typically get a lot of submissions for StageWrite!  Please read the brief carefully and be aware that if your script doesn’t match the stated requirements, we won’t be able to consider it.

NB: we do not have the resources to feature musical theatre at StageWrite.

What we need from you:

  • Commitment to come to The Place Bedford MK40 3DE to attend the performance of your piece, if selected
  • Agreement that if your piece is selected, directors and actors may make tweaks to dialogue, stage directions etc according to what they feel works best during the rehearsal process.  This is a natural part of the development of work for theatre and we need writers to be willing to allow this.  Writers are very welcome to come to watch rehearsals, which also happen at The Place.
  • Scripts that follow industry standard in terms of font size, layout, page numbering etc.  For example formats check out BBC Writer’s Room.
  • Scripts with a run time of between 30 and 60 minutes, either a complete piece, or part of a longer piece that is able to stand alone and be coherent for an audience.
  • A maximum of 6 actors required – if there are more than 6 roles, it should be feasible for the actors to play multiple roles. Please make it clear in the script how this can be done.
  • Stage directions kept to a minimum unless detail is essential.
  • Send your script to phil@lifeboxtheatre.com 
  • Please note that, at present, this is only open to UK residents as you will need to make yourself available for the performance of your piece if selected.

Please follow the brief carefully for your submission to be accepted for consideration.