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ON THE WRITE LINES: Celebrating at the adjudication day for a playwright for Jane McKell's new play are, from left, Ron Davies, Paul Kinvig, Jamie Chapman, Paul Hyland, Jane McKell, Sue Ash and Minette Walters Picture: JOHN GURD/JG2557

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CORFE playwright Nell Denton has won a competition to pen a new production for a leading Dorset theatre company.

For several months, Weymouth-based AsOne Theatre Company has been searching for a writer for their Hey Baby project, a series of stories charting the experiences of a number of pregnant women.

The initiative, which has come out of a number of workshops held by AsOne with mums-to-be involved in the SureStart scheme, will follow the tales of several women as they experience pregnancy from conception to birth.

A class of first year Foundation Film students from Weymouth College will also be involved, filming aspects of the women's expectant nine months.

The quest for the writers took several months until the shortlist was whittled down to two finalists - Nell and Clare Reddaway from Bath.

These two were invited to a final presentation at Portland Spa where they showcased their ideas for the play to a panel of judges made up of AsOne artistic director Jane McKell, Dorset Echo managing director Paul Kinvig, award-winning novelist Minette Waters and West End actor and former WOW member Jamie Chapman.

AsOne artistic director Jane McKell, who spearheaded the search for a playwright, said: "We are delighted to have Nell on board.

"The two shortlisted finalists were incredibly talented and it was difficult to choose the eventual winner, but we had to choose the one who was closest to the brief we asked for. We felt Nell was much more in tune with what we need. The decision was unanimous."

HEY BABY: Award-winning playwright Nell Denton

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Jane said she was also thrilled with the panel of judges. "As part of the Arts and Business initiative, Portland Spa have also been marvellous - very supportive and interested in this project and I cannot thank them enough."

Dorset Echo managing director Paul Kinvig said he was thrilled to have taken part in the judging.

"What I found really interesting was the idea of taking real stories from real women and making a piece of theatre out of it with some fantastically diverse and challenging themes.

"Nell and Clare presented two very different treaties and tackled these very rich stories in very different ways."

He added: "It was very interesting to judge and I think what will come out of it is a piece of theatre that is both funny and heart-rending.

"It is about women and designed for women but the themes it picks up, regardless of gender or age, are things people will want to see."

A rehearsed reading of Nell's play will take place at Portland Spa this autumn.

RUTH MEECH

8:53am Monday 5th May 2008

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