Branwen writes: 'The scriptwriting stream of the MA is world class - the skills learnt, the people met, the support I continue to receive. The writing never seems to get easier, each play is as hard as the last, but one of the most valuable things I learnt through the MA was how I work as a writer, and how that's probably different from every other writer out there. I don't feel as if we have enough playwrights in Aotearoa. People are desperate for more good scripts which is why Ken's course is so vital to the future of our theatre.

'At the IIML I developed an invaluable un-romantic view of writing. Just because someone asks you to write something doesn't mean it will happen. Just because it happens, doesn't mean it will go the way you want. Playwrights are part of a much larger beast, we're in this along with everyone else - and that's exciting.'

Bio: Branwen Millar wrote her first play Noisy Shadows when on an undergraduate exchange at the University of California Santa Barbara in 2005. It was produced as part of the University's annual New Plays Festival and won the Dorothy E Corwin Award for Best One Act. Noisy Shadows received a second production at BATS Theatre in 2006.

Branwen's second play Armslength won her the NZ Young Playwrights' Competition and premiered at Circa Theatre in 2008. She was the 2008 Writer in Residence at the Robert Lord Writer's Cottage in Dunedin and her third play and first professional commission Swan Songwas part of the 2008 Young and Hungry Festival of New Works at BATS Theatre. Her next commission Father Familiar,was produced at BATS Theatre in 2010.

In 2012, Branwen took a break from writing to complete an MPA at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs on a Fulbright scholarship. Living in New York she frequently goes to the theatre, she now works for UNICEF and is working on a new play.