Shakespeare’s Globe Launches £15,000 Environmental Playwright Prize

Shakespeare’s Globe, a UK-based theatre, has recently launched a £15,000 environmental playwright prize.

The prize aims to harness the skills of storytellers and artists to inspire societal shifts towards a restorative relationship with nature.

According to the artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe, Michelle Terry, most of Shakespeare’s works are about humans and their place in the natural world. Not to mention that he made nature an intimate part of his theatre during his lifetime.

Said Terry: “He helped build a theatre made of 1,000 oak trees, open to the sun, the wind, and the rain, bobbing alongside the ebb and flow of the River Thames. He brought thousands of strangers together in this elemental Imaginarium, and he put his craft to work.

“Now is the time to remind ourselves of our humanity and remember the profound and positive contribution we can make on planet earth. There is no better way to do that than through the stories we tell. And there is no greater art form than theatre to unite people and tell those stories together.

Winning play/playwrights will receive £15,000 and support to develop their play, including rehearsal drafts with specialists at Shakespeare’s Globe, and partner organisations – Climate Spring and Fern Culture, alongside exposure to leading theatre decision makers. Additionally, the prize will partner with several other organisations to host climate storytelling workshops.

To enter, writers must submit unproduced full-length stage plays in the English language that address the climate and nature crisis. Themes are interpreted broadly and include environmental changes as well as the social, political, and cultural responses.

Submissions open in June and close September 1, 2026, while winners will be announced in the autumn (September to December).