23 July 2007

Jack Vening Wins Young Playwrights Competition

| Jazz
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Jack Vening, 18, has been named the winner of the Playground 2007 Young Playwright’s Competition, for his surreal comedy, ‘The Problem with Dreams’.

A saga of two city workers struggling to decipher dreams from reality, ‘The Problem with Dreams’ follows down-trodden employee Alex and his demanding boss Sandra through an ‘ordinary’ working day.

On winning the competition, Jack said he started writing plays as a child and hasn’t stopped. Since creating this script for a high school assessment piece, he has wanted to see it performed in a public context. He intends to make his career in writing for the theatre.

Bethany Edwards play ‘Freak Vending Machine Accidents and Family Reunions’ has been selected as runner-up. Edwards play tackles issues of death and grief within a bizarre family set-up. This is Bethany’s first full-length play and she hopes to eventually work as a screenwriter.

The Playground 2007 Young Playwright’s Competition, which was open to young writers aged 19 and under, was launched this year by Shank’s Pony Productions and is presented by Tuggeranong Arts Centre. It is generously supported by Canberra Youth Theatre and Paperchain Bookstores. Playground was created to provide an opportunity for young, unpublished Playwrights to see their work performed by a team of theatre professionals. The aim of this new initiative is to effectively showcase the new work in order to encourage and inspire young writers in the ACT.

Shank’s Pony Artistic Director Naomi Brouwer said that the entries received displayed great variety and a head-on engagement in important and difficult issues pertinent to Young people trying to negotiate life in a confusing age. Judges felt that the scripts displayed writing of a high standard, which reinforced the possibility that the competition could be run on an annual basis.

Featuring Andrea close, Robert de Fries, Ben Drysdale and Petra Elliott, the two winning one-act plays will be performed as a double-bill at Tuggeranong Arts Centre on Friday July 27th @7.30pm and on Saturday July 28th at 2.00pm and 7.30pm. Bookings T: 62931443

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Congratulations Jack, keep it up. You are an hero.

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