SOMERSET Fellowship of Drama’s Original One-Act Playwriting Competition has again attracted a diverse batch of entries from playwrights all over the South West.

The shortlist of six top scripts covers an imaginative range of topics from curious goings-on in a clifftop cottage to twitters and tweets from a birdcage.

There are laughs in a maternity ward waiting room and intrigue in a good old-fashioned murder/mystery/ farce.

One play focuses on the discovery of a supermarket carrier bag in the wrong place while another sees carved heads on pillars in a church coming to life.

In a brace of bird-based plays a cheeky budgerigar considers human foibles while a court of sinister seagulls bring a human to trial for murder – or is it all just a bad dream?

The fellowhip’s Original Play Competition co-ordinator, Pam Hillier, said: “We are now looking for directors and their drama groups to take on one (or more) of these scripts for performance in the County Drama Festival at the Warehouse Theatre in Ilminster in March 2015.

“This is a real opportunity to turn an original work into a memorable production, worthy of a world premiere.

“No royalties are payable for the performance in the County Drama Festival and the fellowship will offer £100 towards expenses of mounting the production.

“By entering the festival your production becomes eligible to compete for the Cely Trevilian cup for the Best Original Play in Production, won in 2014 by Echoes from Weston performing Sam Allen’s ‘Everyday Thinking Refined’, which won first prize in the 2013 Original Playwriting Competition.”

“So why not have a look at the shortlisted scripts?”

The top six scripts are available as downloadable pdfs from the SFD website at somersetdrama.org.uk Then if you are interested in entering one of them in the County Drama Festival please email Pam at pm.hillier@virgin.net An original script has been judged outright winner at the County Drama Festival three times in the past nine years and all three productions went on to win the next round of the All England Theatre Festival, and go through to the English semi-final. Two of these plays also won the Geoffrey Whitworth Trophy for the Best New Play in England.