“First Seen” is The Street Theatre’s annual project that helps ACT playwrights get to the next stage, and its 2015 showing is about to begin.

Three new performance works are taken from conception to full production and in “First Seen,” Canberra audiences get to be part of the writing process. After each public presentation Canberra audiences are invited into a discussion with writers, directors, dramaturgs and actors by sharing their thoughts with the creative teams

This year, the three works selected were drawn from 17 script submissions, open to Canberra playwrights and playwrights belonging to the Canberra writing ‘diaspora’. Each writer will have a dedicated week long workshop offering professional time, space, support, and expertise.

“First Seen 2015” begins this Sunday May 3 with “Staring out of Windows,” developed for solo performance by actor/writer Mariem Omari. In March last year, Omari won a place on The Street Theatre’s HIVE Programme for emerging playwrights. She is currently commissioned to write five short plays on women and honour/shame for production in the UK this year, and is one of Scotland’s Tron Theatre’s ‘100 Artists’. “Staring out of Windows,” was developed as part of the Street Theatre’s HIVE Programme and LaMaMa’s 2014 International Playwrights Residency, and had its first reading at LaMaMa Theatre, New York in January 2015.

IN it, the character ‘Mariem’ is a humanitarian worker from Canberra who leads a crazy life interviewing women in Libya, tearing across Tunisia and protesting in Tahrir Square. She begins talking to/of her own deterioration and how she is losing her hair, her bodily functions and her mind. She determines to find a way out.

“Staring out of Windows” by Mariem Omari Sunday, May 3, 3pm.

In “The Faithful Servant”, Tom Davis’s fifth full play, Frederick is trying to get his daughter, Caroline, to take up the leadership of the medical NGO he founded. Meanwhile, a Mozambique-based manager, Pereira, is trying to transform the NGO into an evangelical Christian institution. As Frederick slides into sickness and death, he begins to go back and forth in his mind between the past and present, Australia and Mozambique, Caroline and Pereira. What does it means to be ‘good’?

“The Faithful Servant” by Tom Davis Sunday, May 17, 3pm

Melbourne playwright and author Michele Lee is was born in Canberra and raised in Tuggeranong, originally (go Tuggers!). She studied communications at UC and was involved with the theatre society there. She is the inaugural recipient of the Betty Burstall Commission for her work, “Moths”.

IN “Rice”, Nisha is a precocious hotshot working as the executive officer of Golden Fields, Australia’s biggest rice company. At the other end of the building, Yvette is a 64-year old cleaner. Their lives are about to entwine.

“Rice” by Michele Lee Sunday, May 31, 3pm

This years’ “First Seen” will involve Canberra artists including directors Adele Chynoweth, Tanya Dickson, Geraldine Turner; dramaturg Peter Matheson, and performers Kate Hosking and PJ Williams.

“First Seen” at The Street Theatre, May 3-31, bookings to  6247 1223 or thestreet.org.au