Six young playwrights have been singled out in the ninth New Zealand Young Playwrights Competition, an event that has established itself as an important stepping-stone in the development of new writers for our theatre. Organised by script development agency Playmarket, the competition, which is open to those aged between 16 and 24, has recognised six winners.

Image: One of the six winners, Branwen Miller.Six young playwrights have been singled out in the ninth New Zealand Young Playwrights Competition, an event that has established itself as an important stepping-stone in the development of new writers for our theatre. Organised by script development agency Playmarket, the competition, which is open to those aged between 16 and 24, has recognised six winners.

Image: One of the six winners, Branwen Miller.Winners in the northern region were Ashley Milne (Papakura, Auckland) and Thomas Sainsbury (Ponsonby). Branwen Miller (Brooklyn, Wellington) and Georgina Titheridge (Aro Valley, Wellington) were the winners in the central region, and in the southern region Kate Morris (North East Valley, Dunedin) and Thalia Henry (Karatane, Otago).

Special mention went to nine other writers: northern region - Claire van Beek, Kathryn Haworth and Mike Borgfeldt; central region - Samuel Bradford, Sam Gaskin and Biddy McCallum; southern region - Pieta Pemberton, Kat Thomas and Faye Tiffin.

The competition was judged by Stephen Sinclair (Ladies' Night, The Bellbird, The Bach), Elizabeth O'Connor (a script developer, director and playwright based in Christchurch), and Janie Walker (playwright and Script Development Co-ordinator at Playmarket).

Ms Walker says there were three-times the amount of entries as the previous competition. "It's so exciting to see young people still passionate about telling stories on the stage."

The winning writers will team up with professional directors, dramaturgs and actors for a week of workshops and professional development at The Edge in Auckland, September 3-7. On Friday 7 September, the winning scripts will be presented to the industry and public as part of the Playmarket at THE EDGE playwright development programme.