Welcome to Young and Hungry


The Young & Hungry Arts Trust is proud to announce a new strategic partnership with Auckland Theatre Company (ATC), New Zealand's leading theatre company. In July 2009 the annual Young & Hungry Festival of New Works will be presented in both Wellington and Auckland.

Every year Young & Hungry commissions three brand new New Zealand plays through its very own Playwrights Initiative. Thanks to this exciting new partnership with ATC our writers have been given a unique opportunity - the chance to see their work premiered in two centres and produced by two different creative teams simultaneously. Three plays, two cities, over 100 young and hungry theatre-makers.

The Young & Hungry Festival of New Works was set up in Wellington in 1994 as a means to provide young people with the opportunity to work on professional quality scripts written specifically for youth. Each year hundreds of 15-25 year olds audition for cast and crew and over 60 successful auditionees are mentored by prefessionals through all aspects of what it takes to mount a theatre production, from acting to design to marketing to backstage crew.

The unique aspect of the Young & Hungry system is the mentoring programme, where industry professionals actively support and develop young people and provide them with a broad range of skills and practical experience to enable a new generation of theatre-makers to create and participate in telling our stories onstage.

Our Alumni bear testament to this: Taika Waititi (Two Cars, One Night; Eagle vs Shark), Loren Horsley (Eagle vs Shark; Kombi Nation), Brett McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords), Michelle Ang (Neighbours), Vanessa Stacey (Out of the Blue, The Tribe).

We are pleased to announce our plays for 2009....
  • OYSTER by Vivienne Plumb (The Cape, The Wife Who Spoke Japanese in Her Sleep)
  • URBAN HYMNS by Miria George (And What Remains)
  • SIT ON IT by Gergina Titheridge (Winner NZ Young Playwrights competition)





  • Young & Hungry - PO Box 27-364, Marion - Square, Wgtn - Phone: 64 +4 385 8227 - young.hungry@gmail.com