Case study – Short career break

Brian Edwards works at the National Theatre, in the box office, but his real ambition is to be a playwright. He received a grant to write a script, and was given a month off work to do it.

"I heard about the grant from a theatre director I had approached with my script. It came from the Peggy Ramsey Foundation, which aims to support new writing in the theatre. I applied. and received £1,500 for a month, which was enough for my living costs while I took a month's unpaid leave from work. My boss was very supportive.

I had already written a rough first draft of the play, and it had been given a rehearsed reading. Professional actors and a director spend a day on the play, then it is read to a paying audience in the evening. It gave me a chance to hear it aloud and see what needed rewriting - which turned out to be most of the play!

I used the month to refine the script, and by the end of it, I had two good drafts. 6 months later, the play was given closed readings (with no audience) and I refined it still further after that. It's had a really positive response from a number of theatres, so I'm hopeful that it will be picked up by one of them soon.

My advice to other aspiring playwrights is to get in touch with theatres. London is a great place to start as it has a lot of theatres which stage new plays. They're very supportive of new writers, and they can point you in the direction of grants and bursaries for writing, as well as courses and radio producers. I was quite surprised at the amount of help available."