Under the patronage of Professor August Everding, Artistic director and General Manager of the 'Bayerische Staatstheater' and president of the 'Deutscher Bühnenverein', the Staatstheater Kassel and the literary agency BERND BAUER VERLAG invited for the 1. EUROPEAN DRAMA AWARD COMPETITION. The contest was meant to make the European public familiar with contemporary dramas of young and new authors from all over Europe and to mediate between European cultures.
For this Competition 1.150 plays were submitted from 29 European countries. For each country the International Theatre Institut (ITI) elected two national jurors, who examined the submitted plays and nominated up to three plays. Altogether 69 plays were nominated. 60 of them had to be translated into German and were submitted to the international Jury.

In the cities of Erfurt, Kassel, Leipzig, Meiningen and Weimar readings of numerous nominated plays took place. The first three awards were produced by the German and Swiss broadcasting corporations DeutschlandRadio Berlin and DRS Schweizer Radio, the world premieres of the awarded plays took place in German and Russian theatres.

The award winning plays of the 1. Europaean Drama Award Competition: