The Dukes Scriptreading Panel

The Dukes is particularly interested in original work and produces five of its own productions each year – currently 60% of these are new plays or new adaptations.  Some are commissioned but a growing number come to The Dukes unsolicited.

In order to deal with the large volume of plays submitted to the Dukes, we have recently set up a dedicated Script-reading Panel, made up of a range of professional actors, writers and theatre practitioners, plus academics with an interest in theatre and young people associated with Creative Learning at The Dukes. The members of the Script-reading Panel are all volunteers committed to new writing for the theatre and to The Dukes’ creative and social aims.

The Script-reading panel is chaired by award-winning, Lancaster-based playwright Daragh Carville.  Reports on every play are passed on to Artistic Director Joe Sumsion, who then reads selected plays recommended by the reading panel.

We are particularly keen to read scripts that haven’t been produced yet, and/or of particular local/regional interest.  Our aim is to find plays to produce and playwrights to work with in the future.

Submission of scripts
Writers are invited to send their script – only one per writer at any one time, and  preferably via email – to Jacqui Wilson, Theatre Secretary: jwilson@dukes-lancaster.org  
• The first page of the script should include title and author.  A brief synopsis and character breakdown at the beginning is also useful.
• If it is new, unproduced, writing we will send your script to a member of our scriptreading panel to report on. 
• This is a new initiative in the early stages of development, but once established and our backlog of unread scripts cleared, our aim to get back to writers within three months.  We will try to offer constructive feedback if appropriate.