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The 2025 National Playwright Competition Opens a Call for Entry
2 Augustus 2024
New stories and voices for the South African stage are essential if theatre is to reflect the hearts and minds of the country’s people. Founded in 2018, and managed by the National Arts Festival, the National Playwright Competition, in partnership with HEINEKEN Beverages, is playing a critical role in helping South African script writers from across the country tell their stories and bring their work to life. Possibly even seeing their play transformed into a fully-fledged production at the National Arts Festival!
A call for entry is now live for the 2025 iteration of the competition. It is open to unpublished playwrights who are over the age of 18 and living anywhere in South Africa, the competition calls for scripts, partial scripts or script synopses with a sample of writing in any of South Africa’s official languages. The works are then carefully evaluated by an adjudication panel chaired by Monageng ‘Vice’ Motshabi and five finalists are selected.
Each of the finalists will receive R5 000 in prize money and will be assigned an experienced writing mentor to assist them in completing their script. The completed play scripts are then evaluated, and an overall winner is selected. The winning playwright will go on to have their play produced and premiered at the National Arts Festival in 2025. The winner will also receive an additional R20 000 in prize money.
The entry form for the 2025 National Playwright Competition can be found here. Entries will close on 2 August 2024 midnight SAST.
Any queries should be sent to heinekenplaywright@nationalartsfestival.co.za