Alfred Fagon Award Writing Workshop – Saturday, 1st November 2025
The Alfred Fagon Award is offering a one-day writing workshop for ten new and emerging Black British playwrights based in South West England.
We encourage all playwrights no matter their experience, age (18+), or background to apply.
10 writers will be invited to attend a day’s workshop at Bristol Old Vic on Saturday,
1st November 2025.
This will be free to attend, and we’ll pay for your rail/bus travel to the venue.
What you will get from the workshop (10am – 6pm)
The workshop will be led by Paula B. Stanic. She will cover – narrative, structure and plot; characterisation and character development, writing effective dialogue; and visualisation, imagery and setting.
You’ll meet one of the past winners of the Alfred Fagon Award for a Q&A.
You’ll leave inspired to write your draft within 4 months.
Festival of Staged Readings
Opportunity for 3/4 writers to have extracts of their plays showcased at the Alfred Fagon Festival of Staged Readings in 2026 to celebrate 30 years of the Alfred Fagon Award.
The festival will be filmed, and writers will receive an edit of their play reading to use when pitching their plays to theatres.
Additional opportunities
All eligible scripts will be entered in the 2026 Alfred Fagon Award.
What we’d like from you
Bring your passion for theatre and storytelling.
A commitment from you to produce a draft within 4 months of attending the workshop.
A commitment from you to work with a dramaturg if your script is selected for the Festival of Staged Readings.
We want to hear from you by Monday, 13th October. Please complete this short application form.
When we’ll let you know
Successful applicants will be notified by Wednesday, 23rd October 2025 by email.
About Paula B. Stanic
Paula B. Stanic has written plays for theatre companies/ spaces around the country and also co-creates work for screen with Makalla McPherson Studios. Her play What’s Lost won the Alfred Fagon Award, MONDAY was shortlisted for the John Whiting and Four Decades was a finalist for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Playwriting. She was the 2023 Roland Rees Recipient. She’s been a writer-on-attachment (Soho Theatre & the National Theatre Studio), part of both the 2016 Drama Room at BBC Writersroom & Screen Yorkshire’s Flex 2 Talent Lab. Recent work includes – Messiah co-written with Jesse Briton. Night Shift for Zoo Co Theatre, Dissonance for Paines Plough & RWCMD, NEW’24, Young Vic. Tracks for New Light Theater Project, Pendragon Theater, NY and 59E59, Off-Broadway.
Paula has run writing workshops for all ages, including – Soho Young Writer’s Lab, Graeae’s ‘Write to Play’ and Salisbury Arts Centre’s older writers’ group. She was a co-lead artist on the Donmar’s 2025 Participation Project ‘My Future’ and is a mentor playwright on ‘New Views’ for the NT.
