The Victoria Wood Playwriting Prize for Comedy

Created by our Artistic Director Sean Foley, The Victoria Wood Playwriting Prize for Comedy (in partnership with The Victoria Wood Foundation) is the UK’s first ever major playwriting competition dedicated to the art of Comedy. The prize is open to UK residents only and will take place biennially.

There is one category, ‘New Comedy Play’, and all plays submitted must be an original, full-length, unperformed and unproduced piece of work.

Submissions for The Victoria Wood Playwriting Prize for Comedy are now open and will close at 23.59 on Fri 1 Dec 2023. Reading and selection will take place until April 2024 and the shortlist will be announced via our website in May 2024. The Winner will be announced at on what would have been Victoria Wood’s 71st birthday, on Sun 19 May 2024.

The winning writer will receive a commission fee of £10,000 funded by the Victoria Wood Foundation, and an award of £15,000 prize money.

This competition is for writers over the age of 18 in all stages of their career, so if you are an established writer with years of experience, or if this is your first adventure into the world of comedy writing – we’d love to see what you have to offer!

Project Timeline:

Fri 1 Sep 2023 Competition opens for submissions
Fri 1 Dec 2023 Competition closed for submissions
Dec – May 2024 Reading and selection of entries
May 2024 Shortlist announced on Rep website
Sun 19 May 2024 Winner announced at award ceremony at The Rep
Wed 31 Jul 2024 Long-list applicants receive written feedback by this date

NOTE: We are unable to commit to notifying writers of their progress through the competition before these dates due to the changeable volume of entries affecting the reading timeline.