Burien Little Theatre is now accepting submissions of unproduced, unpublished scripts for the 2009 Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival.

Winning scripts will be staged in May as part of the 2008-2009 Burien Little Theatre season. Winning plays will also receive monetary prizes.

The submission deadline for all scripts is Dec. 31.

To qualify for the festival all submissions must follow playwrights submission guidelines detailed on www.burienlittletheatre.com.

The mission of the playwrights' festival is to encourage, promote and showcase previously unproduced theatre works written by Washington state residents, and stage the winning plays at the theatre.

The festival was named to honor Bill and Peggy Hunt's dedicated service to community-based theater and their devotion to and involvement with the theatre.

Peggy Hunt joined Burien's community theater organization in 1960 with a leading role in the play "Harvey."

Over the next 35 years both Bill and Peggy appeared in and directed plays, designed and built sets, served on the board of directors, and were involved in some aspect of every theater project.

Originally from Canada, Bill and Peggy were familiar with Canadian play competitions and were instrumental in igniting this idea locally.

The first staged competitions were theatrical, for play production, not writing, with entries from the greater Seattle area; this competition was held as part of Burien's Arts Festival in the early 1970s.

Later, Peggy suggested establishing a playwriting competition with the winning shows to be produced by the theatre. The competition was officially launched in 1999,

Winners will be announced February 15.

The community-based theater has been a tradition in Burien since 1955 and operates on revenue from ticket sales, donations and volunteers.