Doha, February 11 (QNA) - Qatar Sports Club, represented by its Youth Apparatus, and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE), represented by the Arts and Theatre Section of the Educational Guidance Department, honored the winners of the seventh Promising Playwright Competition, including students, teachers, and parents who participated in the contest, which covered all educational levels: primary, preparatory, and secondary.

The award ceremony was attended by Head of the Youth Department at Qatar Sports Club, Mohammed Abdulrahim Al Haydos, and Qasim Mohamed Al Shammari, Senior Visual Arts and Theatre Guidance Expert in the Educational Guidance Department at MoEHE, alongside a host of faculty members from the participating schools and the students' parents.

The competition intends to unlock the creative energies of young people in playwriting and encourage them to engage in authorship as a cultural and aesthetic activity that helps nurture the Qatari theatre movement.

Drawing over 140 students, the contest also aims to develop participants' artistic sense, hone their skills in this field, and strengthen the presence of theatre as a tool for intellectual and social expression in the community.

The concept of this competition is based on providing a competitive platform before a professional judging panel, ensuring a fair and professional evaluation based on clear technical standards, thereby contributing to translating winning texts into projects that are ready for production and performance, in a way that links the act of writing with the live theatrical experience.

The Promising Playwright Competition seeks to explore talents from childhood in collaboration with the MoEHE's Educational Guidance Department, Al Haydos affirmed to Qatar News Agency (QNA), adding that the contest took three months, starting from receiving applications from the participating students and evaluating them, culminating in crowning the winners after their texts had been calibrated and subjected to the judging process.

Al Haydos described the texts as seminal, considering the ages of the participants, making it one of the most outstanding competitions that help nurture the theatre movement by discovering artistic talents.

Over the past years, the winners have achieved a prominent presence in a variety of artistic and theatrical events at home and abroad, underscoring the success of this contest in projecting promising talents capable of mastering theatrical tools, Al Haydos highlighted.

He pointed out that this success demonstrates that Qatar has a strong infrastructure in this artistic field, in terms of abundant actors, writers, and artists capable of producing exceptional artworks.

Al Haydos commended the MoEHE's efforts in discovering and honing student skills in general, and those talented in theatrical education in particular, along with the Arts and Theatre Section, for their dedication to caring for and developing students.

Qasim Mohamed Al Shammari, Senior Visual Arts and Theatre Guidance Expert in MoEHE's Educational Guidance Department, told QNA that the competition significantly contributed to guiding students across different educational stages toward writing theatrical texts, whose themes were diverse and reflected their talents in writing.

He added that one of the primary objectives of the competition was to enhance students' self-confidence, as demonstrated during the dialogue session held as part of the award ceremony, during which students presented their theatrical texts before an audience.

This, he noted, reflects that the competition strengthened their self-confidence, public speaking, fluency, and performance, in addition to many other skills.

Regarding whether the winning students would participate in specialized workshops to further develop their talents, he affirmed that schools ensure the development of the artistic skills and talents of the winning students, supporting them to reach advanced artistic levels, thereby making them promising seeds for school theatre.

Ahmed Youssef Al Badr, member of the judging panel and theatre director, told QNA that the works of the students participating in this contest, which were received by the committee, were highly outstanding and encompassed all three educational stages.

He said that, notwithstanding the significant aptitudes demonstrated by the participants, they need to engage in professional playwright workshops, emphasizing that the judging panel dealt transparently with students whose works reflected their ambitions to potentially become writers and ultimately promising pillars of school theatre.

Ahmed Al Badr affirmed that school theatre is divided into two tracks: the first is educational, and the second is instructional, noting that the competition falls under the first category of theatre.

He added that, despite the level of excellence reflected in the participants' works, these talents should be supported through specialized creative workshops that help further develop their skills and artistic potential.

The award ceremony also included an interactive dialogue session in which the participating students presented their works before the audience and discussed the concepts behind their theatrical scripts.

This reflected the competition's objectives of personal development, confidence-building, and strengthening communication skills, in addition to developing public speaking, performance delivery, audience engagement, and presentation abilities.

At the primary girls' level, student Romaisa Adel from Maymouna Primary School for Girls won first place for her script, while student Mohammed Rashid Al Adhba from Al Qadisiyah Model School for Boys won first place for his script.

At the preparatory level, student Al Jory Badr Al Manna from Zainab Preparatory School for Girls won first place for her script, while student Louay Abdulhamid from Hamza bin Abdulmuttalib Preparatory School for Boys won first place for his script.

At the secondary level, student Malak Al Asmar from Rawda bint Mohammed Secondary School for Girls won first place for her script. Meanwhile, Abu Ubaidah Preparatory School for Boys won first place in the teachers' category of the competition, while Maymouna Primary School for Girls won first place in the parents' category. (QNA)