New Writing

The Theatre Royal Stratford East has a strong tradition of developing new plays and musicals, and encouraging new voices for the stage. 

New Writing - Past and Present

Ever since Joan Littlewood brought her Theatre Workshop company to the theatre in 1953 the Theatre Royal's stage has depicted characters, voices and communities often ignored by other theatres and the mainstream media. The theatre is situated in one of the most ethnically diverse boroughs in London, and our stage reflects that richness of experience and talent.
Amongst the now legendary plays and writers to have been developed by Joan Littlewood are:

'A Taste Of Honey' (1958) by Shelagh Delaney.

'The Quare Fellow' (1956) and 'The Hostage' (1958) by Brendan Behan.

'Fings Aint What They Used T'be' (1959) by Frank Norman / Lionel Bart.

'Oh, What A Lovely War' (1963) by Joan Littlewood with Theatre Workshop.

In the 1980s and '90s, led by Artistic Director Philip Hedley, the theatre has maintained this commitment to reflecting the experiences and histories of our audience in plays such as:

'Scrape Off The Black' by Tunde Ikoli

'Black Poppies' depicting the experiences of Black servicemen in the Second World War

'Moti Roti Puttli Chunni' (in co-production with Moti Roti), a bollywood story.

The theatre's tradition of vibrant popular drama and entertainment has been to the fore in shows such as:

'Five Guys Named Moe', a musical based on the music of Louis Jordan, which ransferred to the West End and Broadway.

'The Invisible Man'; 'The Phantom of the Opera'; 'Zorro' all by Ken Hill; and the legendary Stratford East Traditional Pantomime which is uniquely suited to our stage and auditorium.

Policy for Unsolicited Submissions

Making submissions to TRSE and the return of unsolicited material

We are committed to working with artists whose work expresses the aspirations and concerns of our diverse community on a local, national and international level.

To help achieve this, we have decided to focus our resources and reduce our administration costs. Therefore we no longer send out personal replies; or return scripts, photos or CVs etc.(with or without SAEs). The savings we make will allow us to employ more actors, directors, writers and artists across the year.

If your submission is of interest to us we will be in touch with you in due course. If you have not heard from us within 3 months you can assume that we are unable to work with you at this time.

If you are an actor we advertise in SBS, Equity-on-line and occasionally Spotlight and PRS.

If you are a writer, please keep checking details on our website regarding ScriptLab. We have applied for but have yet to receive funding for ScriptLab. We are hoping to be able to make an annoucement shortly.

Many thanks for your interest in Theatre Royal Stratford East.

Writers' Groups and Writer Attachments

Voices in Exile is a programme to support writers from refugee backgrounds to create the first draft of a new play.

For younger writers (aged 16 – 24) we run the Young Voices group alongside the education department. The Young Voices group runs various writing workshops throughout the year.

New and established writers are supported in a number of ways by the artistic team. This may be by a Writer Attachment, in which the writer has ongoing contact and guidance from a director or dramaturg during their writing process.

We are hoping to establish a writers group for local East London writers of all levels, in which writers can share skills, discuss new plays, and develop their writing for the larger-scale play or musical suited to our stage.

Musical theatre writers are additionally supported via our Musical Theatre Initiative.

To express an interest in Writers' Groups or Writer Attachments go to Mailing List Sign Up page and join our email list choosing Writing Workshops and Programmes.  We are not running any writers programmes at present.