The RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival Transition Year Schools Playwright Competition is now in its 12th year. This year we have individual Transition Year students’ scripts (one act plays, 2000 words on the theme ‘Care’) submitted from 14 counties:

• Cork,
• Donegal,
• Dublin,
• Galway,
• Kerry,
• Kildare,
• Laois,
• Meath,
• Monaghan,
• Offaly,
• Roscommon,
• Sligo,
• Tipperary and
• Westmeath.

 

All scripts are currently with the six judges. Towards the end of March six Transition Year student scripts will emerge as the award winners for 2025. The winning play will be cast and staged for a live TY student audience on Tuesday 6th May 2025 in the Dean Crowe Theatre, Athlone. A guest speaker will address the students and it is usual for and RTÉ news team to attend and report on the Awards Day event in the News2day programme. One thousand euro in prizes for the winning students is sponsored by the Athlone and Castlerea Credit Union. This year we are delighted to have received one TY student script written ‘as Gaeilge’. This is a precedent in the life of this competition. This script may be first of many to help further and encourage the promotion of the Irish language. As their is a Drama module on the Leaving Certificate course, it is reasonable to suppose that Cúrsa Dramaíocht will also be approved for the leaving certificate Irish examination. In the meantime we await the judges’ decisions.