See hot young theatre talent at the New Writing Festival in St Albans next week. Four short plays will be performed during the two-day event by graduates of Guildford School of Acting and Central School of Speech and Drama .

The plays were chosen from more than 100 entries after Irresponsible Decorators, associate company at The Maltings Arts Theatre, put a call out for writing in response to the theme Crossing the Line.

The plays are The Spinning House by Rogerio Correa, which deals with dementia, Dear Mr Putin by Robert Pegg, which addresses Russia’s stance on homosexuality, Eulogy by Jack Stanley in which three siblings try to smooth over a disastrous speech given by the eldest at their father’s funeral, and Milk by Judy Upton is about a lactose intolerant woman meeting a dairy farmer via online dating.

Irresponsible Decorators’ artistic director and producer Stanley Walton says: “As a company we are keen on creating work which is strongly driven by narrative and draws audiences into a world which may provoke thought on contemporary issues or just entertain.“ Stanley formed the company with Joe Berwick in 2011 after they met as students in Hull and to date they have produced seven original productions, two of which have toured up and down the country, and to various fringe festivals including, Edinburgh, Brighton, and Birmingham. For the New Writing Festival they have teamed up with director Amber Townsend and producer Rosie Bauer, who Stanley met at Theatrix Performing Arts at the Abbey Theatre in St Albans in their youth.

Stanley says: “All three of us feel New Writing is important because it offers a platform for unheard talent and can often raise debate about pressing contemporary issues.

“Having grown up in St Albans we feel we never got a chance to see much original fringe theatre and so set out to produce an evening of it.“ Tickets for the festival cost just £7.50 or £5 for students and Stanley says: “As a company we are incredibly keen for theatre to be accessible to all, which is why we do our best to have low ticket prices, we feel tickets should by and large avoid exceeding £10.

“We are currently running a crowd funding campaign so that we can pay our actors expenses, a designer to do set and costume, and for print advertisement. For this evening, to best present the writing, we have made the decision to not just have actors sitting reading four new scripts, we’re having fully designed set/costume and music especially composed.“

To support the crowd funding campaign visit http://wefund.com/project/new-writing-night/p59130/ or www.irresponsibledecorators.co.uk

The Maltings Arts Theatre, Level 2, The Maltings, St Albans, Friday, January 24 and Saturday, January 25, 7.30pm. Details: 0844 8700 887, maltingsartstheatre.co.uk