For the last five years Pentabus Theatre Company has run a programme for young writers from rural areas and this year, their fifth, they will present the results of the nine month project at The Courtyard, when Festival! is staged on June 2 and 3.

"This is the first year we have run the programme in Herefordshire," says Pentabus Artistic Director Sophie Motley. "It's a nine-month programme where a group of 16-25 year olds from predominantly rural areas learn how to craft a play for the stage. We treat them like professional writers and then, at the end of the programme, they write a five to ten minute play. And we decided that, rather than doing a reading of their work, we would put them on stage, so we are presenting 13 plays by 14 young writers.

"We recruited this year from past and present students at the Royal National College for the Blind and from Hereford College of Arts, putting a shout-out across the county."

Directing alongside Sophie is Elle While, a one-time member of Senior Youth Theatre who left Hereford to pursue a career in theatre - she is also currently directing Hamlet at The Globe Theatre in London - but moved back to the county three years ago.

"Playwriting is just story telling," she says. "sometimes we think we have got to the stage where narrative is dead, but even if it's a computer game there is a story, and many playwrights are writing computer games now - it's a new form of theatre."

Festivals, the theme of this year's programme was decided by the young people themselves, driven by a desire to find a 'third place' in which no one felt more comfortable than anyone else, a place where anything could happen - one of the plays, by a student at RNC, sees a Twix bar and a marshmallow off to Abergavenny Food Festival together! Another piece is about two teenagers sitting on a hill watching a festival from afar."

Then, in the third session, Pentabus brought in two professional actors to read eight lines of dialogue, which, says Elle, "is a masterstroke. When I first worked in theatre I worked in prisons quite a lot and had the experience of getting inmates to make their own work and then brought professional actors into the prison to help develop the work.

"Introducing professional actors is about giving people - students or prisoners for example - the right to be aspirational."

Facing the prospect of an intense rehearsal period of just a week - during half -term - Elle and Sophie concede that "It's a challenge to direct 14 plays that are all completely different. But we are hopefully going to make the very best of what these young people have written."

Curator of the Young Writers Group, Tim Foley, added: "It's a privilege to watch these first time writers grow throughout the year, and these short pieces show off their talents and collaborative skills marvellously. From where I'm standing, the future of playwriting looks bright."

See Festival! by Pentabus Young Writers at The Courtyard on Saturday, June 2 at 7pm and Sunday, June 3 at 3pm and 7pm. To book, call the box office on 01432 340555 or visit courtyard.org.uk