Throughout this year, Box of Tricks will be offering 12 free one-to-one script surgeries for playwrights.
Replacing our Open Door submission policy, Script Surgeries are an opportunity for new and existing members of the PlayMakers Network to engage more deeply with Box of Tricks and gain dramaturgical support on a current script.
How does it work?
Box of Tricks commit to read your full script ahead of the Script Surgery. Each surgery will be an hour long, one-to-one meeting - online or in-person depending on location and schedules - and writers will receive a follow-up email with written notes.
How do you apply?
Submit an extract of a script you'd like to develop (up to 20 pages) via our Application Form. You will be asked a few questions about you as a playwright:
→ Your script and playwriting process
→ What do you want to focus on at this stage of development?
→ What questions do you have about your script?
→ What do you envisage as the next stage for this script?
Deadline>>> Friday 27 February 2026, 6pm
We will select scripts and playwrights that we feel we are the right dramaturgs for. If we don't feel like we are suited to your script, we may recommend alternative development avenues.
Who can apply?
Script Surgeries are an opportunity for Box of Tricks to start new conversations with playwrights as well as deepen existing creative connections.
We operate a Positive Action Policy to support playwrights from underrepresented communities, and as such will be offering six of the Script Surgery slots to playwrights from underrepresented communities who have not engaged with Box of Tricks development schemes previously.
The remaining six Script Surgery slots will be open to members of the PlayMakers Network who have participated in one of our development schemes: Pen Pals, PlayBox, Screen/Play, Box Fresh, Accelerate, Pen Pals International.
Writers must be members of Box of Tricks’ PlayMakers Network, aged 18+ and either resident in, or originally from, the North of England.