LAHORE: The Lahore Arts Council for the first time will hold a competition of amateur and professional script writers to help build the foundations of parallel theatre.

LAC Executive Director Saleem Sagar told Dawn that the contest will have two categories - armature and professional writers.

Amateur writers [not over 30 years of age] will be from universities and colleges and professionals will not have any age bar. The amateur writers interested in the competition need to provide a letter of participation from their respective college or university.

The writers will be given a month’s time to submit their scripts. The council will advertise the competition in the next couple of days in print and on social media.

The council has given a list of topics to participating writers such as patriotism, human rights, social media, environment etc. The topics will be same for both categories and there will be no registration fee to join the contest.

The jury for the competition will comprise eight distinguished personalities Asghar Nadeem Syed, Dr Tehseen Firaqi, Majid Zahoor, Amna Mufti, Dr Moeen Nizami, Wasay Chuahdry, Fasih Bari Khan and Sarmad Khoosat. There will be cash prizes for first three top positions. The first prize will be of Rs50,000, second Rs30,000 and third Rs20,000. The cash prizes for both categories will be the same.

The executive director said from each category three top plays will be selected for a drama festival spanning over six days at Alhamra Art Centre, The Mall.

After the festival, a script writing workshop for amateur participants will be held which will be conducted by Asghar Nadeem Syed.

To many theatre critics, efforts to hold a script writing competition are a way ahead to remove commercial theatre from the platform of the council and introduce a quality theatre instead.

It may be mentioned that the LAC has been providing space for commercial theatre on its premises for years now for earning purposes.

Sagar said LAC has also organised a summer camp for young fellows aged between seven and 15 years at both Alhamra Art Centre, The Mall, and Alhamra Cultural Complex, Gaddafi Stadium.

At Alhamra, The Mall, the summer camp will kick off from July 10 and will last till Aug 10. The disciplines being offered at The Mall are singing, kathak dance and theatre whereas at Alhamra Cultural Complex, a drawing summer camp has started from Tuesday (July 4) and will last for a month.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2023