The Old Vic and Shoreditch Town Hall have announced an exciting new partnership as playwright applications open for the fifth year of The Old Vic 12.

Introduced by the Old Vic’s Artistic Director Matthew Warchus in 2015, The Old Vic 12 is a group of extraordinary developing artists ready to take the next step in their careers. The scheme provides access and insights into top-level theatre-making, mentoring from industry experts, opportunities to deliver masterclasses to emerging artists and to collaborate with each other to create brand new work.

This year, for the first time, the scheme will go beyond The Old Vic in a co-production with Shoreditch Town Hall where, following the year-long attachment to create and develop three brand new plays, the work will be presented in a three-week repertory season in March 2021. This is a pilot for the work that will ultimately take place within The Old Vic’s new Annex, set for completion in 2022/23.

Of the partnership Matthew Warchus said: ‘The Old Vic 12 is now well established in its commitment to providing emerging artists with practical and collaborative ways to gain insights into the creative industries. It offers ‘real world’ experiences that reflect how work is made at independent producing theatres. To be able to broaden this engagement through a collaboration of this nature is a welcome development of the scheme and one that we hope to expand on in the future with the building of our own Annex’

James Pidgeon, Director of Shoreditch Town Hall said: ‘Long have I admired the artist development programme that is The Old Vic 12, and so I’m thrilled that Shoreditch Town Hall will now be working in co-production with The Old Vic to add a further dimension to the project by ensuring the three pieces of work created are taken through to full production. This incredibly exciting development very much aligns with the Town Hall’s commitment to nurturing artistic talent and to providing a platform for artists at turning points in their careers, often in collaboration with partners from across the UK. We cannot wait to start the process of discovering the artistic voices we’ll be working with’

This year’s group of writers, directors, producers and other theatre artists will be selected through an accessible, nationwide recruitment process. We want to hear from artists who are passionate about creating outstanding new writing which explores engaging, contemporary subjects in a way that will inspire, entice and entertain the largest audiences possible.

For more information on how to apply for the Old Vic 12, click here.

The deadline for applications is 12noon on Wednesday 25 September.