Climate Playwriting Prize 2026

Leeds Playhouse is joining forces with Shakespeare’s Globe, Climate Spring and Fern Culture to launch the 2026 Climate Playwriting Prize, which aims to empower the theatre industry into new climate conversations.

Climate Spring is a global organisation transforming how the climate crisis is represented in popular culture, while Fern Culture supports the development of new theatre about the climate and nature crisis.

The winning playwright will receive £15,000 and support to develop the play with specialists, as well as exposure to leading theatre decision-makers.

Writers must submit unproduced, full-length stage plays in English that address the climate and nature crisis. The prize is "open to plays that connect with the widest possible audience and respond to living through this profound time in human history".

Submissions will open in June and close on September 1. Winners will be announced in the autumn.

The Climate Playwriting Prize is presented in association with partners including Chichester Festival Theatre, Exeter Northcott, Leeds Playhouse, the Lyric Theatre Belfast, Mercury Theatre in Colchester, New Earth Theatre and Pentabus Theatre, and tiata fahodzi, a leading British African heritage theatre company. Each will host a climate storytelling workshop delivered by the Globe, Fern Culture, and freelance playwrights, which will feed into the judging process.

Michelle Terry, artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe, said: “Almost every play Shakespeare wrote was about human beings, our human nature, and our place in the natural world. Now is the time to remind ourselves of the profound and positive contribution we can make on planet earth.”

More info here