The RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival – 2027 Schools Playwright Competition

Rules.

1 Participants must be Transition Year Students only in second level schools.
There is no entry fee. Theme: ‘Trust’
Entries must be submitted by individual students only. Submissions from groups or two
students working together will not be accepted. Entries may be submitted in Irish but will be
translated to English for judging.
2 TY Co-ordinators/Teachers should shortlist between one and three entries from each TY class
on the theme of ‘Trust’ for submission to this competition. Only one script per student is
permissible.
Entrants will each receive a Certificate of Participation if their submission is complete.
Prize winners may be requested to participate in publicity by way of photographs/interviews.
3. Entries must be typed up and formatted as a script (Approximately 2,000 words, excluding
stage directions). Type ‘END’ on the last page. Give the play an appropriate title. The title
of the play must appear as a header on every page and page numbers must be in the footer.
Please send in .doc, .docx or .pdf format or allow access to editing so file can be saved.
4 AN ENTRY FORM MUST BE COMPLETED IN FULL FOR EACH SCRIPT WHEN SUBMITTED. THE
NAME OF THE ENTRANT OR SCHOOL MUST NOT APPEAR ON THE SCRIPT AS SUBMITTED.
5 Plagiarism will result in immediate disqualification. Entries must be the original work of the
entrant. Individual entries must not have been published elsewhere or have won a prize in any
other competition. AI/CHAT GPT GENERATED SCRIPTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
6 Entries must be emailed to:- schoolsplaywright@gmail.com (not dropbox etc.) to arrive by
Friday 18 th December 2026

7 The decision of the adjudicators will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
The RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival organisers reserve the right to amend or change any aspect
of the terms and conditions/rules of the competition, as might be required, without prior
notice.

TY COMPETITION – Helpful Tips – 2027 Theme: Trust

“You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible” – Anton Chekov
THEME/TITLE: Topic to work on: ‘Trust’. One act play (2000 words). Give it a fitting title – signify the END.
A PLAY/SCRIPT A make believe story to develop trapped characters that you create in your imagination.
IMAGINATION: Create a story/play in your head. We all have Trust issues in our lives, often accompanied by fear.
Fear leads to more fear (tensions) which are the personal trust responsibilities that you must develop
for each character. “Responsibility is always a sign of trust” – James Cash Penny.

STARTING POINT: Write about friendships where respect and trust have to be mutual. “The best way to find out if you
can trust somebody is to trust them.” – Ernest Hemingway. When your inability to open up to hope is
what blocks trust, how do you feel? Sow the seeds of trust for an unknown future where money
cannot buy trust, respect or common sense. “The people when rightly and fully trusted will return the
trust.” – Abraham Lincoln. Be true to self and to your word. Create attention grabbing trust issues
where broken promises have blighted situations to help build tension into your story/plot. “Trust is
the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all
relationships.” – Stephen Covey

CHARACTERS: People are characters. You have to think, organise, argue and write/script the dialogue that connects
or divides each character in time, place and action. (2 to 5 characters approx.) Approach is to
negotiate. “Trust, but verify.” – Ronald Reagan. Characters might hold back something (hidden
objective – an affair, a passport, birth cert, stolen identity – who lives in their world?) “Whoever is
careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” – Albert Einstein.
DIALOGUE: The speaking words (dialogue) should advance the plot and develop the characters. “I’m not upset
that you lied to me. I’m upset that from now on I cannot believe you.” – Frederick Nietzsche
TIME: It happens in the 'now' of time. Avoid using words such as “Well”, “Like”, “Hello”. Every word and
action should count to say something about the character’s story. A flawless character is a dull
character. “None of us knows what might happen even in the next minute, yet still we go forward,
because we trust, because we have faith.” – Paulo Coelho

SETTING: Where action takes place – school/hospital/home/street etc. Bear in mind the restrictions that may be

presented in a staged production.

DIRECTIONS: Entrances, exits, positioning etc. must be clear and concise mentioning time and place of action.
OBJECTIVE: The super-objective is the overall ‘Trust’ story and you must create the trust issue in the play. The
through-line is where ‘Trust‘ weaves its way through the whole play. “For there to be betrayal there
would have to have been trust first.” – Suzanne Collins, The Hungry Games. Each character has their
own storyline and motivation in the script therefore their own objective is to get what they want.
Never see ‘Trust’ as an obstacle because it can be an opportunity of interest in the overall story. The
characters’ conflicts of interest overlap and that creates tensions between them.

CONFLICT: A peak of great importance. Today, due to war atrocities and environmental disaster zones elsewhere
posing a serious health and world problem that hinders world progress and forces refugees to flee
their homes and seek accommodation here and in other countries creates conflict. There is a growing
‘gap’ between truth/the impeccable word and current reality and there lies the conflict/tension.
“Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.” –Sophocles. Trust is silent like blood pressure – high and low – but
a deadly ‘ticking clock’. The senses deceive us from time to time and build tensions for trust
outcomes. “To trust people is a luxury in which only the wealthy can indulge; the poor cannot afford
it.” E.M. Forster. There are those who believe themselves to be accountable to nobody and should
not be trusted by anybody. “Where large sums of money are concerned it is advisable to trust
nobody” – Agatha Christie.

CONCLUSION: Build a skeleton story, first this happened, then this, and so on… You must create the conflicting
relationships that need working out to reach a solution in a set location. Keep in mind the need for
your play to be suitable for performance. You cannot have a forest fire or car chase on stage!
Trust yourself and speak with integrity.
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none: Be able for thine enemy
Rather empower than use; and keep thy friend under thy own life’s key: be checked for silence
But never tax’d for speech.” – William Shakespeare – All’s Well That Ends Well
Good luck in playwriting. It is an equal failing to trust everybody and to trust nobody.