The shortlisted entrants for an annual theatre award have been announced. 

Now in its fourteenth year the Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama and Writing serves at the crowning event of the Windsor Fringe, the second oldest fringe festival in the country having been founded in 1969.

This year 257 scripts were submitted from 17 countries and evaluated anonymously by 38 readers.

On October 7, the winner will be announced, with three up-and-coming writers in contention. 

In the mix still is Fade Out by Lyndsey Honour. In her day job as a TV and Film publicist, Honour has worked with a number of talented writers and she’s in awe of great storytelling. She’s also a script reader and writes whenever she gets the chance. This will be her first produced play.

Alongside her is Hometime by David Hendon. Hendon is a journalist and broadcaster based in Birmingham. Recent plays include The D-List, which showed at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, Eyes to The Wind, which was a finalist in 2016’s Kenneth Branagh Award, and Sign of The Times, which ran in the Scottish capital this year.

And the third contender is Clara at Noon by Wendy Dickinson. Dickinson’s a director and composer based in the North West of England. Having composed her first musical ‘Knowledge by Degrees’ in 2012, she has gone on to write three full length musicals, alongside a growing portfolio of commissions of chamber music, choral and orchestral work and recently made it to the final two of the 2017 International PROJECT TWO Composition competition. 

Kenneth Branagh has been the key sponsor of the award for the last 5 years.

The three shortlisted finalists will see their plays fully staged on the last three nights of the Festival, October 5 to 7.

In addition she works as a freelance organist, violinist and accompanist.

He said: “I am delighted to sponsor this writing award and to be a small part of the Windsor Fringe initiative that supports new writers.

"Without a good play or script, the best actors and directors in the world cannot hope to produce good work and I welcome the encouragement that this award offers to writers both local and international.”