Merry Tricksmas! Festive Missive 2025 19/12/2025

As we count down the days until Christmas, we’ve taken a moment to catch our breath, look back at everything we’ve delivered over the past twelve months and look ahead to what’s coming next. It’s been another jam-packed year for PlayMakers — showcases, masterclasses, international exchanges and socials — and we wanted to share a few highlights before we step into Christmas...

Back in January, we returned to HOME Mcr with our annual PlayMakers Takeover 2025: a day celebrating new writing and creative connection. Our Accelerate Showcase platformed extracts from 12 new plays written by Northern writers aged 35+, while the rest of the day included a PlayMakers Offstage workshop with Movement Director Aiden Crawford, our drop-in Culture Café and a Blood Beats’ Social.

In the summer, we moved away from online-only and offered our first ever in-person Masterclasses in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle. A hybrid, accessible model, where PlayMakers joined us in the room or via Zoom, sold-out sessions with industry professionals tackled a range of topics exploring the craft of playwriting. If you haven’t already, check out the recorded sessions in our online archive.

Our Blood Beats LGBTQ+ Writers Group ran First Press: fortnightly sessions to produce our first ever zine! Each Blood Beater contributed brand new pieces of work on the theme: How Loud Do You Want To Be? Original artwork, bold writing and even a curse for misgendering! We celebrated the launch of the Zine at The Yard in July and distributed 500 copies across the North.

Partnering with our friends Centre 42 in Singapore, Pen Pals International was a new cross-cultural exchange programme matching 6 pairs of playwrights from Singapore and the UK. Sharing ideas and developing their craft, writers developed a full-length play through peer support and dramaturgical feedback from Box of Tricks and Centre 42. We had a fabulous time working with our 12 Pen Pals and were delighted to see Naomi Sumner Chan’s play Hide and Seek with Jimmy Ling make the Women’s Prize for Playwriting shortlist!

Throughout 2025, we celebrated a number of our PlayMakers family popping up on award longlists and shortlists: Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, the Women’s Prize for Playwriting and DCC Playwriting Prize. A massive congratulations to those writers: Mohammed Barber, Tiegan Byrne, Lekhani Chirwa, Natasha Cottriall, Terri Jade Donavan, Daneka Etchells, Laurie Ogden, Hannah Salt, Naomi Sumner Chan and Laura Woodward.

We rounded off our year with our annual Christmas Coffee Morning bringing together Northern playwrights and theatremakers. A festive sign-off to the year, it was a room full of creative joy (and a mince pie or two!), bringing together faces old and new. Mingling at Box of Tricks’ HQ at The Yard Mcr, local PlayMakers had creative conversations, heard about our plans for 2026 and forged new connections – all to the sound of Christmas bangers!

Looking ahead, we’ll be announcing a programme of PlayMakers activities and events in the New Year. Expect opportunities to connect, collaborate and create: workshops, socials and dramaturgical support. Watch this space!

We look forward to seeing you in 2026. Until then, Merry Tricksmas!

With festive love from the Tricksters,

Adam & Hannah x

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