Are you under 25? Got a head full of stories? Or just a vivid imagination?

Why not put pen to paper and submit one of your stories as a one-act play to State Theatre Company’s Young Playwrights Award?

All entries will be read by a panel of experts, with the winning entrant receiving a unique prize pack including:

• 4 Play Subscription to our 2011 Season (valued at $100)

• $500 prize money

• A money-can’t-buy opportunity to have a week of script development with a professional director and actors before seeing it performed on stage!

Scripts due by 5pm, Friday 17 June 2011.

For more information visit our the student opportunities pages on our website

Alceste is a famous playwright disillusioned and angry with hypocrisy, vanity and choking shallowness of the modern world. Vowing to reject society and to tell it like it is, his plans are derailed when he falls madly in love with Jennifer. An ambitious American film star and darling of the social scene, she may prove to be his biggest challenge yet.

Martin Crimp whisks Molière’s 17th-century comic masterpiece straight into the heart of the contemporary London media scene to explore the conflict between integrity and success.

Warning: Contains strong language

SUITABLE FOR: Yrs 10 – 12

Presented by Alison Howard, Shakespeare (Comedy) Workshop explores the comedic aspects of this most famous playwright.

Every Shakespearean play has elements of comedy. Unravel the language and demystify the poetry through this accessible and informative workshop. Work with excerpts from Shakespeare’s plays to unravel the words of the Bard and examine the comedy within.

A bold, irreverent romp through all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays in just 99 minutes! Blazing hilarity that aims to out-Python Monty! In a world where we constantly lament that we are “time-poor”, who has the time or indeed the stamina to endure the daunting length of the Immortal Bard’s canon? Three brave actors brazenly blend the best of the brilliant Bard with the bottom of the absurdity barrel in this farcical feast of inspired lunacy. A side-splitting roller coaster ride involving improvisation, pop culture and audience participation, as well as the fastest, funniest Hamlet you’re every likely to see.

SUITABLE FOR: Yrs 9 – 12

Presented by Alison Howard, Absurd Drama Workshops takes students on an exploration of the absurd.

What were the social, historical and theatrical forces that brought this new explosive style of performance into being? What were the techniques used by these bold new playwrights?

Covering work by Beckett, Albee, Pinter and others, your students will take a bizarre journey into the surreal world of the absurdists.

Meet President Charles Smith, the most corrupt, inept buffoon ever to sit in the Oval Office. It’s the final days of his bid for a second term, but the country is a mess and his poll numbers are “lower than Gandhi’s cholesterol.” Toss in a lesbian speechwriter longing to marry her sweetheart on national television, a cynical Chief of Staff, Thanksgiving turkeys awaiting pardon, and some shady backroom scheming and you’ve got a hilarious masterpiece.

A scathingly entertaining take on the state of the American politics today and the lengths to which the powerful will go to stay in power in any country, November shows that you don’t have to be the sharpest tool in the shed to be the most dangerous weapon in the world.

Warning: Frequent and liberal use of the ‘f’ word. It’s David Mamet, after all…..

SUITABLE FOR: Yrs 10 – 12

A park bench, two strangers and a mysterious trip to the zoo.

Class warfare at its most personal and instinctive, The Zoo Story is a gripping Central Park encounter between a well-to-do business man and a disturbed vagrant.

Peter is a middle-class publishing executive who lives in ignorance of the world outside his settled life. Jerry is an isolated man who lives in a boarding house. Desperate to have a meaningful conversation with another human being, Jerry intrudes on Peter’s peaceful state by interrogating him and forcing him to listen to stories from his life. The results are both explosive and mythic.

This gripping, groundbreaking play, first performed in Berlin in 1959, has become a classic of 20th century drama, a show-down of the most primal kind..

Lyrical, abrasive, daring and at times very funny, this is a play that questions many of the values that shape our lives.

Warning: contains violence

SUITABLE FOR: Yrs 10 – 12

Andrew Bovell’s intriguing, seductive play is a mystery for grown ups. Laden with love, infidelity and mistrust, Speaking in Tongues is the stage precursor to the highly successful film Lantana, critically acclaimed, a huge popular success, and awarded numerous prizes and accolades.

Both highly dramatic and wickedly funny, this is a strangely tender offering about making mistakes and living with the consequences. The play delves into the murky territory of intimacy and trust within relationships, revealing the darker sides of our emotional selves. Suggesting the interweaving of our fates, Speaking in Tongues is a provoking comment on the strangled communication that occurs between men and women.

Warning: Contains strong language.

SUITABLE FOR: Yrs 10 – 12

Presented by Corey McMahon, the Brecht Workshop explores the famous Bertolt Brecht's plays.

What made Brecht’s work so extraordinary and influential? This workshop will consider the dramatic forms of Brecht’s theatre. What is epic theatre? What techniques did Brecht use to alienate his actors from their characters and the audience? Through practical examples students will understand the cultural, historical and political contexts that influenced Brecht’s work.

“Any idiot can face a crisis. It’s the day to day living that wears you out!”

At the dawn of a new century, three sisters exiled to a provincial backwater long for a return to Moscow and its vibrant cultures. Unable to bear the banality of their lives, tempers flare and all kinds of appetites go unchecked, provoking wild and dangerous responses from the people around them. While dealing with the death of their father and the frustrations and dissatisfactions of the present, the arrival of the debonair and magnetic officer Vershinin turns their world upside down and reminds them that happiness might just be possible…

One of the greatest plays of the 20th century, Chekhov’s tragi-comic masterpiece of provincial claustrophobia and the frustrations of small town life has a universally resounding appeal. At once grave and joyous, thrillingly recognisable and deeply moving, it tells its story with courage, compassion and humour.

SUITABLE FOR: Yrs 10 – 12