News Article
Winner announced: Summer Shorts 2026
16 Aug 26
This years' Shorts curation and production team (Kelly Q, Tom Mathias and Guy Jones) announce the winner of this year's prize for best writer: Natalie Gregorian for her play, Three to Five Minutes
2026 marks the fourth year that the SLT Summer Shorts have benefitted from a kind bequest, which specifically provided the funds for a cash prize for an annual play-writing competition. After audience voting in 2023 for the Sport-themed plays that year, Charlotte Benstead won with her funny and poignant monologue, Mr Tuesday, performed by Victoria Waddington.
The vote in 2024 for the Storm-themed plays went, by contrast, to an ensemble piece: the touching and funny family drama Thursday, written by and featuring Rob Tavernier.
The vote-winner of last year’s Scale-themed plays was a surprise mini-musical outing, A Sense Of Scale, by James Taverner, performed by Marissa Ferrara with James himself accompanying on the keys.
We would like to congratulate Natalie Gregorian on her win this year for her short play Three to Five Minutes: a two-hander exploring, via the theme of Window, how some windows of opportunity can determine the person you will become. Natalie will be receiving her modest cash prize shortly.
The entire programme of Shorts once again played to sold-out houses, and we’re very proud of the massive team effort that once again brought this something-for-everyone selection box to the stage.
If you’re missing the Shorts fun already, a brief for submissions for Summer Shorts 2027 will be announced in the first part of next year, with auditions to follow on.
Kelly, Tom & Guy
SLT Summer Shorts Team 2026