Skylines is Theatre Centre's online resource for playwrights who would like to know more about writing plays for children and young people.

Skylines is Theatre Centre's online resource for writers interested in writing plays for children and young people. It is regularly updated with video interviews, articles, exercises and useful play extracts.

Visit the resources page and browse all of our content for writers, emerging and established, who are interested in writing plays for audiences aged 4 to 18.

Theatre Centre productions have been touring schools and theatres since 1953. Skylines uses the benefit of more than 60 years’ experience in the Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) sector, and the expertise of the professional playwrights and creatives with whom we work, to deliver engaging online resources for writers.

We hope you’ll be inspired by leading playwrights and develop your writing skills: our aim is to make a positive contribution to an already exciting sector, by enhancing its diversity and ensuring that young audiences are afforded relevant work that reflects the world they live in.

Thank you for exploring our Skylines resources for writers. To keep up to date with our activity, including new resources and our prizes and awards for writers, please subscribe to our mailing list.

Background

The many Skylines videos, articles, exercises and script extracts you’ll find on ourresources page are an extension of the writer development programme of the same name Theatre Centre coordinated between 2012 and 2013.

Theatre Centre is a professional touring company. Since 1953 we’ve presented over 200 new titles for children and young people in schools and theatres. We understand the importance of nurturing new talent in the field of theatre for children and young people, and developed Skylines to inspire talented playwrights to explore this area.

The Skylines programme initially worked with a closed group of fifty writers, it involved workshops and provided platforms for participants to share work, online resources and culminated in our Write Lines conference.

The initial project worked with five regional partners, for whose continued support Theatre Centre is very grateful: Everyman Theatre (Cheltenham), Hampstead Theatre (London), New Writing South (Brighton), The Royal Exchange (Manchester) and the University of East Anglia (Norwich).

Skylines is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.