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.
The award is kindly supported by the Bill Cashmore Award Founder Sasha Bates. Young Lyric is funded to support and provide opportunities for children and young people through programmes, workshops and activities.
We particularly welcome submissions from those who are underrepresented in theatre and/or situated in areas culturally underserved – please see our FAQs for more information.
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
Your script must:
- Be written for stage by a single author
- Be no more than 25 pages with a running length of 30 minutes
- Be submitted in size 12 Arial font
- Be suitable for a cast of 5 actors aged 18-25
- Not have been previously professionally staged to a paying audience (R&Ds and sharings are not included in this criteria)
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
Please read our FAQs for more details on all of the above.
We are pleased to announce the longlisted plays for the Bill Cashmore Award 2026: One Act Play Prize
| Writer Name | Title of Play |
| A. L. Benjamin | Not That Kind Of Person |
| Abby J. Walker | The Beneficiaries |
| Anouk Saint | Smear |
| Aoife Parr | Renewal |
| Elizabeth Whitby | Simon Says |
| Hannah Martin | Dog Eats Dog |
| Imogen Shackleton | Three Weird Sisters |
| Jess Naomi | Stone Cold Dead |
| Joe Wiltshire | Kummerspeck |
| Kalea | SQUAD |
| Madeline Whitby | Savage |
| Rosalind Jackson Roe | Fractured Elegies |
| Sameer Ali | The Hydraulic Play |
| Seán Butler | formication |
| Susie Weidmann | Spitting distance |
| Tabitha Hayward | Koalas |
| Tiajna | Real |
| Tom Draper | I support… |
| Tom Murray | My AI Funeral |
| Will Pinhey | Gears, Tears and Scaffolding |
