Latest update March 29th, 2025 5:38 AM
Six million dollar purse for National Drama Festival 2013
The finals of the National Drama Festival will be held at the National Cultural Centre from November 11-19 without age, gender, religious or other restrictions.
This year’s festival will see over 45 plays being staged, and it is not only a competition, but is meant to reward the best performer with training so that they can elevate themselves to a level of competence. 
Director of the Festival, Mr. Godfrey Naughton said that what makes the festival different from last year’s is the fact that the plays in the “Schools and Debutants” category have been subjected to intense training to bring them up to par with those in the ‘Open category.’
He explained that all plays written by local and foreign playwrights are eligible.
The competition takes place in four categories, with one category being subdivided. There is the ‘secondary schools’ category and the ‘debutante category’, which is set aside for first timers in the festival.
The open category is divided into short and full length plays. The full length plays have the incentive of a million dollars top prize. “We encourage our artists to be on par with their counterparts anywhere in the world by placing before them these incentives which a total of almost six million dollars.”
Adding that there has been an emergence of a wide array of new talent and stalwarts, Naughton said the entries closed on September 15, 2013 with 52 eligible plays. There were approximately ten plays that did not qualify due to a variety of reasons.
He noted that a fully trained mentorship team of 40 persons have been established which is capable of training dramatists at a very high level.
He added that the members of the mentor group worked with all the schools that entered the education ministry’s festival last July.
“This process is not about money, it is about the preservation of your priceless culture heritage which must be secured by this generation and preserved for generations to come. The Ministry of Culture has invested heavily in the secondary schools and junior category, which are the future… our youths are the guardians of our heritage,” Naughton said.
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony encouraged the general public to come out and support the plays since this will serve as a form of encouragement for the artistes to do better.
He expressed gratitude to Digicel for working with them as they develop the festival and also thanked the team which has been putting the festival together as he wished the contestants well.
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