Yorkshire Playwrights: about us

Yorkshire Playwrights is a group of professional and aspiring professional dramatists, active in all the dramatic mediums, stage, television, radio. The group works to encourage the writing and the performing of new plays in Yorkshire and to develop understanding of the dramatist's craft.

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Yorkshire Playwrights members are active in all the dramatic mediums, at every level. Some of our members write for well-known television series like Coronation Street and Eastenders, or have created their own radio or television series. Others, just as important, write for local fringe or amateur theatre companies.

The group's main aims are:

to encourage playwriting and performance of new plays and other plays by living writers in Yorkshire, and in our part of the North of England;
to liaise with local theatres and theatre groups and local, regional and network broadcasting organisations;
to promote understanding of the dramatist's craft, and to help our members hone their skills;
to build the theatre audiences of the future.

Yorkshire Playwrights is a democratic, self-help writers' organisation. A committee, elected annually, runs Yorkshire Playwrights, which was founded in 1989, from an initiative by Jude Kelly and William Weston at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, Yorkshire.

Membership of Yorkshire Playwrights is open to any writers who live within the historic boundaries of Yorkshire and/or the area covered by the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Arts Council. You can download an application form here.

Most members of Yorkshire Playwrights are also members of one of the national writers' organisations, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain (incorporating the Theatre Writers' Union), or the Society of Authors. Potential Yorkshire Playwrights members who are not already members of one of the national writers' organisations will be expected to have demonstrated a serious commitment to the craft of drama.

The subscription (annual) is £25 (£15 unwaged) for the full year and £12.50 (£7.50 unwaged) after December 1. (Cases of financial hardship will be dealt with sympathetically by the Treasurer)

Non-members are welcome to attend one or two meetings of Yorkshire Playwrights before joining, and are asked to make a contribution of £3 per meeting.