“In the Pursuit of New Writers”: The Royal Court Young Peoples’ Theatre and the Development of First-Time Playwrights in the 1990s

Abstract

The 1994/95 season of new plays by first time writers is emblematic of the Court’s new policy of “rapid turnover, rapid expansion” which aimed to directly challenge the vision of the past and dramatically augment the number of plays in production at the theater. Although the theater’s own grassroots initiative, the Young Peoples’ Theatre (YPT), was central to the Court’s ability to sustain this policy, its contribution has been largely overlooked in existing scholarship. Holden, therefore, assesses the ways in which the YPT sourced and developed a new generation of playwrights which ultimately supported the Court in the realization and implementation of its vision.