Sofie Mason and Diana Jervis-Read have been on a mission since 2006 to celebrate the full spectrum of Off West End theatres – by first creating a campaigning listings site to proclaim the existence and accessibility of these plucky little theatres (OffWestEnd.com), and then by launching large-scale awards (The Offies) to encourage increasing numbers of theatre-goers into the heady darkness and dangerous passion of these little powerhouses perched above a pub, tucked under a railway bridge, built around a butcher’s shop or suspended above a shopping centre.
The Adopt A Playwright Award, and all our charitable activities since, grew out of these early exhilarating madcap campaigns. With the help of our magnificent Angels and Trustees, our focus now is to concentrate solely on developing ways to give under-privileged writers of talent a leg up in their careers – to level the playing field for as many as possible of the brilliant but penniless writers caught in an increasing cost of living crisis that is pricing them out of London and pricing them out of writing at all. Our award is dedicated to bringing greater financial security to precarious lives, building a community around the least connected and helping each winner curate the writing of a new full-length play across a year of tailored support.