We are delighted to announce the launch of a new UK Theatre Writing bursary called the Davidson PlayGC Bursary which has been established to support theatres and writers to produce new work. An initial fund of £60,000 has been raised and the first £20,000 bursary is being awarded to the Royal Court Theatre in London to support the new Artistic Director, David Byrne, as he launches his first season of plays. Byrne has selected the playwright Oli Forsyth for the first bursary. Oli is currently working on the new play entitled BRACE BRACE which will be staged from Thursday 3 October to Saturday 9 November in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court.

The arts and theatre are under enormous pressure, yet the need to foster and encourage new writing is an important part of theatre’s role in society. We set up PlayGC with the primary aim of supporting new theatre writing and this is one of the ways we are delivering that aim. We approached the Alan Davidson Foundation with the idea of collaborating to create this bursary, and we are thrilled that they readily agreed. We had been impressed with the work of David Byrne at the New Diorama Theatre, and, with his move to the Royal Court, the home of new writing, it seemed like the right time and place to fund the first bursary.

BRACE BRACE will be directed by Daniel Raggett.