James Graham to support emerging writers with new crowd-sourced Dickens play

Olivier Award-winning playwright James Graham will lead a new initiative to support aspiring writers by collaborating on a project at Wilton's Music Hall this autumn.

Entitled Sketching and based on Charles Dickens' first novel Sketches by Boz, Graham and director Thomas Hescott (Tory Boyz) will oversee a new piece based in and around the Music Hall in east London, with undiscovered writers contributing with texts of their own. The show is billed as "Love Actually meets Magnolia on stage".

Writers, especially those currently underrepresented in the industry, are encouraged to submit stories and character ideas by visiting sketchingtheplay.com. Successful applicants will receive £1,000 for their story, as well as expenses to attend a masterclass week with professional artists and writers. The deadline is 4 June, with the website wanting writers who have never received a professional production of their solo play.

The play's website says: "Led by James, we're basically crowd-sourcing a play. But we want ideas and stories. Not money."

Graham said: "We're all aware of the growing deficit of opportunities for emerging artists from working class, regional backgrounds. We know there are far too few writers finding stages who are women or people of colour, a mix of nationalities and faiths. We're looking for a team of writers to contribute strands, to help us work together to interweave them, and collaborate on generating more, together."

Graham's Quiz is currently running in the West End, with his play Ink recently announcing a Broadway transfer.

The final piece will run from 26 September to 27 October at Wilton's, with tickets on sale today.