The Bill Cashmore Award

Our friends at the Lyric have opened submissions for the Bill Cashmore award 2026 - a fantastic opportunity check it out below! 

The Bill Cashmore Award, presented by Young Lyric, offers a paid opportunity for two new one-act plays by writers aged 18-30, to be professionally produced at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. The two winning plays will run as a double bill and will be performed by the Lyric’s  SPRINGBOARD trainee actors in Autumn 2026.

To submit, you must:

• Be aged 18-30 at the time of submission and based in the U.K. (incl Northern Ireland)

• Be without professional representation (ie. a literary agent)

• Have no more than 2 professional writing credits

The two successful writers will:

• Receive a fee of £4,000.11 (exclusive of royalties)

• Receive an agreed contribution to your travel for attendance in person if required

• Be creatively involved in shaping the marketing and involved in the rehearsal process

• Receive dramaturgical support

• Receive complimentary invites to tickets to all performances

• Be invited to Lyric Press Nights

We particularly welcome submissions from those who are underrepresented in theatre and/or situated in areas culturally underserved. Please see our FAQs for more details. Applications close on Tuesday 6^th January at 12pm. Please see here for full information, our FAQs, and to submit: https://lyric.co.uk/bill-cashmore-award/

The award is kindly supported by the Bill Cashmore Award Founder Sasha Bates.