We would like to thank the Peggy Ramsay Foundation for their support with this production. Writer Ian Winterton was awarded a grant by the Foundation earlier in 2011 which aided the scripts development significantly. Find out more about the Foundation here:
The Peggy Ramsay Foundation
The Foundation was established in 1992 in accordance with the Will of Peggy Ramsay, the well-known play agent. Her executors, Laurence Harbottle and Simon Callow, instituted the Trust by deed and the residue of her estate was the first capital.
The Trustees
At present the trustees are G Laurence Harbottle (to whom correspondence should be addressed), Neil Adleman, Simon Callow CBE, Michael Codron CBE, Sir David Hare, Tamara Harvey, Rupert Rhymes OBE, John Tydeman OBE and Dame Harriet Walter DBE
The purpose of the foundation
Peggy Ramsay believed that her task was the creative support of writers for the stage. The Trustees attempt to emulate that and their priority in making grants is to assist individuals who make the theatre their principal place of work and have had some experience. When funds permit grants are sometimes made to organisations which have a similar purpose to that of the Foundation and some special awards, such as the George Devine and Alfred Fagon Awards, the Pearson Playwrights Scheme and the Tom Erhardt Bursary are supported.
Grants
Individual grants never ordinarily exceed £5,000. Grants are sometimes made for equipment needed by qualified applicants, such as laptops, and for expenditure which makes writing possible. In every case whether a grant is made or not the applicant will be notified but reasons for grants or refusals are never given.
Although the trustees do not give reasons for their decisions when funds are limited individuals are preferred to organisations and new applicants to repeated applications. Nevertheless repeated applications can be considered.
Individual qualifications to be considered for a grant
Subject to the provisions below the Trustees will consider an application from a playwright resident in the British Isles who has had at least one full length play in English professionally produced for a run for an audience of adults or (subject to the exclusion below) of young people. By full length the Trustees usually mean a play of more than one hour and that a run implies performance for more than one week. The British Isles are deemed to include the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man.
Exclusions
The Trustees will not accept as qualification books for musicals, pantomime scripts, puppet plays, foreign language plays, translations or school plays. Adaptations and plays intended primarily for younger audiences are accepted only in special circumstances which imply wider originality.
Plays in other media and scripts for film or television are not a qualification but are relevant in a CV.
The Foundation does not support production costs or any project which does not have a direct benefit to individual playwrights or writing for the stage. Commissioning costs are usually considered as part of production costs. Fees for training or courses of any kind are not supported. Scripts, publicity material and reviews should not be sent. References are not needed.
Timing of applications
The Trustees meet quarterly. Although applications are also dealt with between meetings a delay of at least 6 – 8 weeks must be expected for a definitive answer. Applications are usually acknowledged.
Form of application
Applicants are asked to send:-
- a short letter explaining the need, the amount hoped for and the way in which any grant would be spent.
- a full CV not limited to writing.
- on a separate sheet answers to these questions:-
- when and where was the first professional production of a play of yours?
- who produced the play which qualifies you for a grant?
- when and where was your qualifying play produced, what was its run and approximate playing time and has it been revived?
- for that production were the director and actors all professionals engaged with Equity contracts?
- did the audience pay to attend?
Address
The Foundation can be reached as follows:-
Address: Hanover House 14 Hanover Square London W1S 1HP
Tel: 020 7667 5000
Fax: 020 7667 5100
Email: laurence.harbottle@harbottle.com
About Peggy Ramsay
Peggy Ramsay became probably the best known play agent in the United Kingdom during the second half of the Twentieth Century. She established her agency, firmly described as a play agency and not a literary agency, in 1953. It continued until her death in 1991 and then subsequently re-emerged and continues under the aegis of her trusted deputy Tom Erhardt in the name of Casarotto Ramsay.
During her lifetime she dedicated her principal activity to British theatre and acted for (sometimes found and always nurtured) the majority of the best known writers for the stage in this country. Radio, television and films all gained her attention but her devotion was to the stage and those who wrote for it.
Her multitude of clients is far too many to list here but her admirable biography by Colin Chambers (“Peggy” published by Nick Hern Books) has five pages of them, ranging from names as different as Alan Ayckbourn, Robert Bolt, David Hare and Alan Plater to Eugene Ionesco, Joe Orton, Stephen Poliakoff and J B Priestley.
When she died her estate amounted to some £1.5 million and was left for charitable purposes to help writers and writing for the stage with especial reference to her friends and clients. Her executors Laurence Harbottle and Simon Callow established the Peggy Ramsay Foundation in pursuance of this object and became its first trustees. With the other Trustees, listed above, the Foundation tries to carry out her wishes and helps individual writers and many writing projects.
Shred Productions 