Interview with Pippa Hill & Sophie Cairns

With the launch of the brand-new Mainstage Prize, a £10,000 award championing ambitious large-scale theatre, I sat down with founder Sophie Cairns and chairperson Pippa Hill to discuss the future of new writing, the urgent need for commercially ambitious theatre, and why horror has been chosen as the Prize’s inaugural genre. Backed by Riverside Studios, the Mainstage Prize aims to discover bold theatrical voices capable of captivating large audiences, and terrifying them too. 

Sophie: What was the moment you realised there was a real gap in the industry for a prize like the Mainstage Prize? 

I asked for feedback from producers, writers, and literary managers about what they thought was missing from awards and commissioning opportunities. What I found was that writers are often encouraged to write for small-scale, studio spaces, and rarely given an opportunity to write something new for a large auditorium. I wondered what would happen if we tried to fill that gap, and let writers unleash their ambition. 

Pippa: After years developing new work at institutions like the RSC, what excites you most about this initiative? 

It’s the combination of new original work at scale that excites me most- the Prize is explicitly seeking out original, large scale new plays with a view to putting them on big stages.

Sophie: Why was horror the perfect genre to launch the Prize with? 

Horror is such a clear genre, people know what it means and audiences know whether they like horror or not. Yet there is also so much room to play within it, to be bold and explore complex, thorny ideas. It’s inherently theatrical, and a lot of fun.  

Pippa: What qualities instantly make a script feel “mainstage-ready” to you? 

Theatricality, invention, epic, resonant themes and a brilliant, compelling story. 

Sophie: As a producer, what are the biggest challenges currently facing large-scale new writing in the UK? 

Arts institutions are under enormous financial pressure, especially since Covid, and so taking a bet on new work at a large scale can feel like a big risk. With IP-based work, it feels easier to predict the potential audience size and how well a show is going to sell. But of course, as a producer, you can always get these decisions wrong. So I think it’s important to back the work you connect with as much as anything.  

Pippa: Are there certain mistakes writers often make when attempting to write “big”? 

You don’t necessarily need a huge company of actors or a large number of characters to write for a main stage. I think there’s a perception that big plays need crowds on stage- they can do, of course, but it’s not the crucial ingredient. 

Sophie: How involved will mentorship be in shaping the winning play after the award is announced? 

It depends. I want this to be guided by the playwright, and what support they need for their play and/or career. 

Pippa: What kinds of theatrical risks are you hoping writers will take with horror submissions? 

I am hoping for originality above all- stories I have never read or imagined before, written from a new perspective. I am hoping for formal inventiveness and I am hoping writers will feel inspired to try new ways to be mischievous with their theatrical toolkit.

Sophie: Do you think theatre is becoming more adventurous again after a difficult few years for the industry? 

I think there will always be a spirit of adventure in theatre and the arts more generally - there has to be, otherwise why do it? Artists are inherently resourceful and brave. The fact that, despite enormous economic and social challenges over the last few years, we’re still seeing a plethora of brilliant new work coming out of the industry, shows that great theatre will always continue to be made.  

Both: Both of you have spent years championing new voices. What’s something the industry still gets wrong about supporting playwrights? 

Pippa - I think any support for playwrights is helpful. In my experience what they often need most is time- paid time to write, to think, to research and to test their ideas. That’s perhaps something that’s harder to find at the moment, while resources are scarce. 

Sophie - I think the industry can feel very opaque sometimes in how it works, how decisions get made, whose work is put on. I think there are a lot of individuals and institutions trying to change that, which I’d only encourage more of.  

Pippa: What makes a rehearsed reading invaluable in the development process? 

The audience is the thing most writers need to really understand how their play works. A rehearsed reading gives them a chance to hear how their work lands with an audience, often for the first time. 

Sophie: If the Mainstage Prize is wildly successful, where would you love to see it in five years’ time? 

I would love it to become a pipeline for some of the most exciting new work on main stages. I want people to know, if a play has won the Mainstage Prize, it’s going to be something big.  

A huge thank you to Sophie Cairns and Pippa Hill for taking the time to speak with us about the launch of the Mainstage Prize. At a time when the industry is actively searching for bold theatrical experiences that can truly fill auditoriums, this feels like an exciting and vital opportunity for playwrights ready to think big. Submissions for the inaugural horror-themed Prize are now open, with rehearsed readings set to take place at Riverside Studios ahead of the winner being announced in 2027. More information, eligibility details and submission guidelines can be found at Mainstage Prize