Box of Tricks' 18th Birthday Appeal

As Box of Tricks turns 18, we urgently need your help to raise £12,000 so we can deliver our PlayMakers Programme for Northern playwrights and theatremakers over the next twelve months.

In this challenging climate, we need to turn to our networks to help us in our hour of need. Last year, following numerous funding knockbacks, we were forced to streamline operations and let go of our brilliant Literary Team. This has been a huge blow to our creative mission. Looking to the future, we now need to find the money to continue supporting Northern talent.

Box of Tricks' PlayMakers Network is a creative home for 750+ Northern playwrights and theatremakers at all levels of experience to connect, collaborate and create. 

All money raised will go directly towards delivering our PlayMakers Programme. Hitting £12,000 will enable us to:

• Host our PlayMakers Takeover – an all-day new play extravaganza – at HOME Mcr next January
• Offer 500+ hours of free creative space for 50+ local writers and 50+ creatives in our PlayMakers SPACE at The Yard Mcr
• Allow 12 Northern writers aged 35+ to make a step-change through our Accelerate initiative
• Develop new plays through our New Tricks commissioning model
• Produce a brand new season of our popular PlayMakers Podcast platforming conversations with creatives with 1000+ listeners
• Pair 12 writers in our inaugural international Pen Pals exchange programme with Singaporean new writing company Centre 42
• Support local LGBTQ+ writers through Blood Beats monthly sessions
• Bring together artists of all disciplines – theatre, music, spoken word, dance – for in-the moment cross-artform collaborations at our Creative Jams
• Deliver online Masterclasses for 100+ writers and 500+ more via our video archive

If we are to keep offering support for Northern playwrights, we urgently need your help.  

In all our years as a company, it has never been harder than it is right now: funding cuts, risk averse theatres, a challenging fundraising climate. The reality is if we don't hit our target, we'll undoubtedly have to reduce our capacity and scale back our PlayMakers programme.

There has never been greater demand for a strong creative community forging pathways into our industry and providing meaningful opportunities. To reinvigorate the new writing ecology, it's vital we encourage artists to hone their craft and offer a home for sustained development.

We know money is tight right now. If you can, please donate today and play your part in our story. All donations will make a real difference. 

“A theatre company to watch” – The Stage

Box of Tricks makes plays. We champion playwrights and empower them to tell the stories they want to tell. We create heartfelt theatre that resonates, inspires and entertains by uncovering new plays that reflect the world in which we live today.

Based in Manchester, Box of Tricks is an award-winning theatre company that brings people together to share stories collectively. We stage new plays and connect with communities right across the UK. Celebrating Northern talent, our productions are staged in theatres locally and nationally as well as in public spaces – pubs, libraries, village halls – in the heart of local communities.

New plays are the lifeblood of theatre and playwrights its beating heart. Box of Tricks offers a home for playwrights to find their voice and tell their story. Our PlayMakers Network is a creative community for Northern playwrights to connect, collaborate and create. We nurture early-career North West playwrights through our year-long PlayBox attachments and commission, develop and produce bold new theatre through our New Tricks commissions.