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)