The Bush Theatre Launches Social Networking Playwriting Site

U.K.'s The Stage is reporting that, in keeping with the times, West London's Bush Theatre launched a pioneering social networking website, Bush Green, allowing playwrights to post their scripts online for producers and directors to read in the hope of getting commissioned. The site is running at www.bushgreen.org.

The site currently features 170 plays and approximately 500 test users.  Since the launch this week, the numbers are expected to increase drastically. Sign-up for the site is free. Supported by a £60,000 grant from the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. Users can preview about 20% of the script free of charge, and can view the rest for £2.58 (for a full-length script) or £1.38 (for a short play). Bush Green is seeking longer-term sponsorship.

For their contributions, the playwrights will earn £1 from the £2.58. £1 goes back into the upkeep of the site, while the remainder goes to PayPal, which operates the payment transactions. 

Says Bush artistic director Josie Rourke to The Stage: "What we wanted to do, as a small organisation, was think of a really concrete way we could realise more of the potential of the work we read each year. We're now up to something like 1,500 plays which are submitted each year to the Bush [a venue which specialises in new writing]. We invest a lot of time and heart in reading them and looking for new work...Because we're small, though, there's only a limited number of them that we can produce. So we began to wonder what would happen if we were to use the internet to connect other potential directors and producers of good, new work with the plays themselves. That's the main idea behind it."

To read the full report in The Stage, click here.

The Bush is a world-famous home for new plays and an internationally renowned champion of playwrights. They nurture and produce the best new playwrights from the widest range of backgrounds, and present their work to the highest possible standards. The Bush has produced hundreds of groundbreaking premieres since its inception in 1972, many of them Bush commissions, and hosted guest productions by leading companies and artists from across the world. The Bush has won over 100 awards, and developed an enviable reputation for touring its acclaimed productions nationally and internationally. The Bush receives more than 1,000 scripts every year, and reads and responds to them all. This is one small part of a comprehensive playwrights development programme which nurtures the relationship between writer and director, as well as playwright residencies and commissions. Everything that done to develop playwrights focuses them towards a production on the Bush stage or beyond.

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