The Bush is a world-famous home for new plays and an internationally-renowned champion of playwrights.
About us
Our Mission
The Bush is a world-famous home for new plays and an internationally renowned champion of
playwrights. We discover, nurture and produce the best new artists from the widest range of
backgrounds from our home in a distinctive corner of west London. We look for exciting new
voices that tell bold contemporary stories from varied cultural vantage points and we champion
work that is both provocative and entertaining.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Madani Younis, the Bush Theatre is committed to
presenting a new writing programme which speaks to and reflects our diverse contemporary
society.
The Bush is a key organisation for talent development within the industry; we're a platform for
the training and professional development of a range of artists and theatre professionals. We
continually seek opportunities that challenge and grow our small staff team and large
constituency of artists.
Having moved from a room above a pub to the old library, we are a local theatre with an
international reputation. We have won over 100 awards, and developed an enviable reputation for
touring our acclaimed productions nationally and internationally.
Our work with playwrights
“The Bush reeks of fertility -- its commitment to new work, its new play know-how, its engaged
and vibrant audience -- all of these make it one of the most exciting places I've been in my
creative life. There is no other way to put it: I adore the Bush.—ú
Ayad Akhtar
The Bush Theatre opens two submission windows a year for unsolicited scripts and reads around 1500
plays annually. Throughout the year we also read scripts submitted by agents. This is one small part
of a comprehensive programme which nurtures the relationship between writer and director, as
well as playwright residencies and commissions. Everything that we do to develop playwrights
focuses them towards a production on our stage or beyond.
Bushgreen
Bush Green
Since 2009 we have been developing BushGreen, a digital platform at which our work in the
building meets the outside world. It's a meeting point for writers, artists and audiences. This is a
continuing digital project which started life as a website in its own right and now forms part
of the brief of our new website, to be launched later this year.
We are proposing to grow the BushGreen online offer to prioritise varied and vibrant content that
contextualises the writing process for both playwrights and an interested online audience. This
new venture is about celebrating the numerous ways that stories are told and to support and
structure through tutorials, editorial and multimedia content an offer online that is unique,
contemporary and which thrives.
Community Engagement
The Bush Theatre is developing a dynamic creative approach to working with its immediate local
community. This commitment is led by Madani Younis, who describes this work as one that
should “reveal the theatre's relationship to the community and the community's relationship to
us.—ú The work produced should merit, and be given, equal status and profile as a part of the
whole Bush programme. The Community Producer works with the team to ensure a sense of
mutual, informed thinking so that the programme is articulated as a unified entity. Individual
events and projects are part of a clear long-term strategy.