What is the JMK Award?
The JMK Award offers one young director the opportunity to direct a full-scale professional play. This year, the JMK Award returns to its former home at the wonderful Young Vic Theatre.
The JMK Award constitutes an Award of £30,000 plus space in the Maria Theatre at the Young Vic. The winning director will receive a fee for their work as director on the production. Runner up prizes may also be awarded.
The most recent winner of the JMK Award was Adam Karim, with designer Roisin Jenner, for their production of Guards at the Taj by Rajiv Joseph.
The JMK Award was supported by Martin Bowley Charitable Trust, the Katie Bradford Arts Trust, the Leche Trust, the Cockayne Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation, the London Community Foundation, the Patricia Routledge Foundation, the Orange Tree Theatre and all our individual donors.
How do I apply for the award?
Details for the current JMK Award are published each year. Make sure to sign up to our mailing list to get the latest news.
In order to apply for the award, you must adhere to that year’s eligibility criteria. You will be then receive a list of plays, which will be sent out via the mailing list here. If you’re already signed up, check your preferences and make sure you’ve ticked to receive news about the Award. Check junk mail folders just in case!
If you haven’t received a copy of the list please contact award@jmktrust.org. The play list is released with a good amount of time before the application deadline closes.
You then fill out the JMK Award application form, which asks how you would rehearse and stage the play.
What happens to my application?
We use equal opportunities data to help monitor applications, and gauge the impact and reach of our work and this will not be linked to your application when sent to the panel. Each application is read at least twice, and applications that provoke differences of opinion will be considered by additional readers.
Further details of how your application is considered are available on request.
Where do I get advice?
Look at this website. There’s a host of information to help! Alternatively, when applications open, we will host information workshops that provide some top tips on application writing and a chance to ask questions about the JMK Award process.
Keep an eye out for those. For other upcoming workshops, sign up to our mailing list.
Ideas for your production should ideally begin with an appreciation of the play, its original context, world and ideas. Put across what you have to say about the play, rather than imagining what we would wish to hear. Whether they are imaginative or purely practical, communicate your thoughts, drives and ideas as clearly and directly as possible.
Directors at all levels of their career have won the JMK Award. Similarly, many winners have returned to the selection process more than once before winning.
What happens if I get through?
You will be sent full details of the next stage if you are successful in your first round application. You’ll be asked to put together ideas for a creative team for the production, and work with a designer on some initial visual ideas.
If you are successful in the first round, you will work with a designer to submit a short visual pitch for your production as an extension of your first rounds application. Then, we will shortlist to 8 candidates (and their designers) to be interviewed by our selection panel in the final stages, with opportunity to work in the rehearsal room with actors on your chosen text.
The final selection aims to announce by the end of March/April 2026.
