New Writing Malaysia is a new home for a new generation of writers ready for wider stages. A cohort of ten playwrights from across Malaysia will create a full-length play in their first language over the course of a year. All plays will be published in a collection of new Malaysian playwriting, with the hope that the work will go on to be produced professionally throughout Malaysia, including at the upcoming Muara Arts Theatre.

The programme is co-facilitated by Carl Miller, a playwright with long experience of developing new writers internationally with the Royal Court Theatre, London, and Jo Kukathas, the acclaimed Malaysian writer, director and actor, and Artistic Director of The Instant Café Theatre Company. Richard Twyman, Artistic Director of English Touring Theatre and Consultant Director at Muara Arts Theatre, provides support across the programme. New Writing Malaysia is presented by Muara Arts Theatre.

Programme Structure

The first workshop covers the fundamentals of the craft: dramatic action, structure, dialogue and character, and the question of what to write and why. Each writer leaves with an idea of a play to write and three months to produce a first draft.

The second workshop is built around the most essential skill in any writer's career, redrafting your own work, before a further period to put those skills into practice and produce a second draft.

The third workshop brings the group back together to hear their plays on their feet with professional actors, with extracts presented to an invited industry audience, before writers complete their finished full-length play.

Over the course of a year, this is around three weeks of contact time, with periods in between to write and redraft.

Key Dates

Application & Selection Period

• Applications open: Monday, 28 September 2026
• Applications close: Monday, 19 October 2026, 23:30 pm
• Selection & Notification: By 8 November 2026

 Workshop Period(s)

1. First workshop: 30 November to 6 December 2026
2. Second workshop: TBC, a week in March – May 2027
3. Third workshop: TBC, a week in August – November 2027

Practical details

The programme is free of charge. All scripts are translated at each draft stage, so writers always work in their first language.

For writers based outside Kuala Lumpur, the workshop covers travel and accommodation. Please get in touch with any access or support needs, or other circumstances that may make it difficult to participate – and we will do our best to accommodate. 

Who can apply/ Eligibility

• Applicants must be citizens of Malaysia.
• Emerging to mid-career playwrights must have had at least one full-length play produced professionally: a fully staged production that ran for more than two performances to a paying public audience. Rehearsed readings, workshops, and student or amateur productions do not count. OR
• If you have a body of work in a relevant or different role or discipline, such as screenwriter, poet, novelist, or actor/deviser, that is equivalent to the above, please get in touch to discuss your eligibility.
• Available to attend all three workshops in-person, and fully participate in the year-long programme.

Applicants need to submit the following

• Completed application form. Preview the full application form [here], available in [English / Bahasa Malaysia].
• One-page CV 
• A scene from a previously written play (produced or unproduced) in your first language, up to 8 pages. Please include details of the year it was written, and a short synopsis of the whole play and where the scene fits in.
• If applying from a different discipline, please send a short example of your work in that medium. In addition, please include a scene from your existing work adapted for the stage or an original scene for this application of no more than 8 pages. 

Submit your application through one of the links here:
BM / EN

Once submitted, you will see a confirmation message, and a copy of your response will be sent to your email. Please get in touch with us at theatre@muaraarts.org if you have not received a response after 3 days. 

Applications close on Monday 19 October 2026, 23:30 pm. Late applications will not be accepted.

Applicants will be informed whether they have been selected. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide feedback on unsuccessful applications.

Notes

Before applying, please read the info pack and FAQ here.

About Co-facilitators

Carl Miller

Carl Miller’s plays have been commissioned and produced across the UK and around the world, including the National Theatre in London and the National Theatre Company of Korea. He has particular interests in adaptation, contemporary stories and themes, music drama, and work for and with young people and their families. He has recently been developing new live performance/technology hybrid projects.

Carl worked extensively with the Royal Court Theatre’s International Department on playwriting projects in many countries. He has been an Associate Director of Birmingham Rep and Unicorn and has worked as a dramaturg with groups and individuals in many countries. He mentors for young people’s charity Just Like Us and members of Freedom From Torture’s Write to Life group. www.carl-miller.uk

Jo Kukathas

Jo Kukathas is an actor, writer, director, curator, co-founder/Artistic Director of The Instant Café Theatre Company (1989), best known for its political satire and new Malaysian writing. She has run arts spaces, produced festivals, staged productions and toured/ worked in Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Brazil, Taiwan and Indonesia.

She curated a research festival, What The Elders Left Us (2025), a legacy project which interrogated and reimagined the 1960s Malaysian performing arts landscape, co-curator of Arcade at Pak Peng – a return to analogue and rest as resistance and directed The Secret Drawer in 2026. She is an API (Asian Public Intellectual) and DDS Fellow (De La Salle Democracy Discourse).

About Muara Arts

Muara Arts is a not-for-profit initiative by Creador Foundation. It is part of a wider cultural revitalisation project around the historic market square, Medan Pasar. Muara Arts Theatre exists to bring together the cultures, languages and communities that have always met at the heart of Kuala Lumpur, a place where the stories of contemporary Malaysia are told, and the artists of the future are made. We invest in artists over time, work across languages and build audiences from the ground up: connecting artists and communities to develop a relationship with the theatre that lasts a lifetime.

Contact for inquiries regarding the open call

For inquiries regarding application to this program, please contact us at theatre@muaraarts.org