Opportunities

Ten playwrights' projects are selected and matched with a script advisor. Selected playwrights and script advisors are paid sixteen hours each of online contact time to help towards the process of developing a script. The process will take place over a period of time (up to three months) as negotiated between the playwright and script advisor. 

Submissions should include an outline of your current or future project with a suggestion of whom you would like to work with, if you know. We assess the applications and make the best connection between the selected playwrights and script advisors that we can.
Submissions are closed for 2024.

ROBERT LORD COTTAGE RESIDENCY

When co-founder of Playmarket, Robert Lord, took up a Burns Fellowship at Otago University in 1987, he bought his first home—a small cottage close to the university and the town centre of Dunedin. His tragically few years in Titan Street were happy and productive ones. Before he died, Robert put in place a plan that the cottage would become a home for other writers who choose to come to Dunedin to write, and a Trust was established to administer the plan.

Today, the cottage (three furnished rooms and a courtyard garden) is run as a rent-free residency for writers.

To date, playwrights who have lived and worked here include Gary Henderson, Renée, Jan Bolwell, Vanessa Rhodes, Vincent O'Sullivan, Branwen Millar, Paul Rothwell, Rochelle Bright, and Kip Chapman.

To apply, please email here with your CV and a statement of the project you propose to work on, your preferred dates for a residency and whether you have flexibility, and why Dunedin is a suitable venue for the project

Submissions have closed for residencies in 2024.

WRITING RESIDENCIES AND BURSARIES:

Caselburg Trust Residency

International Institute of Modern Letters Emerging Māori Writer in Residence

International Institute of Modern Letters Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residence

International Institute of Modern Letters Writer in Residence

Karekare House Residency

The Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship

Louis Johnson New Writer's Bursary

Michael King Writers Centre Residencies

NZSA Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship

NZSA Lilian Ida Smith Award

Randell Cottage residency

Todd New Writers Bursary

University of Canterbury Ursula Bethell Residency

University of Waikato Writer in Residence

Updated 2024

Playmarket's annual Brown Ink development programme looks for the best new and original work by Māori and Pasifika writers.

The programme offers two plays a development workshop with a professional script advisor, and actors dedicated to helping develop the play.

Plays selected for development for Brown Ink that have gone to professional productions include The Mooncake and the Kumara by Mei Lin Hansen, Girl on a Corner by Victor Rodger, Officer 27 by Aroha Awarau, I Ain't Mad At Cha by Turene Jones and Au Ko Tuvalu by Tavita Nielsen-Mamea.

Submissions can only be entered into this programme once and you may enter a maximum of three scripts. Plays entered under this programme may have been previously produced but may not be currently receiving other development assistance.

The judges' decisions are final.

Submit here.

Submissions close 1 October 2024

Playmarket's annual Asian Ink development programme looks for the best new and original work by New Zealand Asian writers.

The programme offers a development workshop with a professional script advisor, and actors dedicated to helping develop the play.

Plays selected for development for Asian Ink include Chick Habit by Nuanzhi Zheng, Not Woman Enough by Hweiling Ow, Orientation by Chye-Ling Huang, MoodPorn by Matthew Loveranes and Flesh off the Boat by Nathan Joe.

Submissions can only be entered into this programme once and you may enter a maximum of three scripts each year. Plays entered under this programme may have been previously produced.

The judges' decisions are final.

Submit here.

Submissions close 1 July 2024.