As Waterford Youth Arts gets ready to celebrate its 35th birthday, part of the celebrations is a new programme called The Young Playwrights Programme. An open call to all young writers to submit a short play or an extract from a longer work, maximum length of 15 minutes. Three plays will be chosen and the writers will be mentored by playwrights, Nicola Spendlove, Jim Nolan and Martina Collender and the final result will be a rehearsed reading of the selected plays as part of The Lit Festival 2020.

Young Playwrights Programme mentor Martina Collender

Young Playwrights Programme mentor Martina Collender


The Young Playwrights Programme aims to encourage and nurture the talents of young local writers and to give them the challenge of writing plays. Through this new programme we hope it will give them new skills and create exciting pieces of Theatre and give them the opportunity for their work to reach a wider audience.

The Lit Festival is heading into its 4th year and is excited to include the winners of The Young Playwrights Programme into their festival of reading and writing for young people.
The Young Playwrights Programme is open to young playwrights between 14 to 19 years, all submissions should be sent to info@waterfordyoutharts.com by Friday 24th April, where they will be evaluated by our panel of writers and feedback will be provided to all playwrights even if their work is not selected, so get out there and get writing.