A NORTH-EAST theatre company with a reputation for new writing is receiving a £30,000 boost from a BBC scheme to help writers in the region.

Live Theatre, based on Newcastle's Quayside, will receive the money over the next two years to find and help writers develop their work for stage, radio, TV and film.

Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall is among the writers Live has fostered in the past.

The Northern Exposure scheme is described as "the most exciting project in its scale and diversity that any broadcaster has ever launched" by Kate Rowland, the BBC's creative director of new writing.

"Newcastle is full of talent and we're committed to the development of new writing in a creative environment in which writers can really flourish," she said.

The scheme will enable Live to commission more young writers to develop work in partnership with theatre and the drama and comedy departments of the BBC.

The first three writers to benefit will be Carina Rodney, Sally Heywood and Margaret Wilkinson. They have received development awards of £500 each.

Jeremy Herrin, Live's associate director for new writing, said the funding would allow the theatre to plan a long-term approach to supporting and developing writing from the North, and to give it a national voice.

BBC and Live have also joined forces in a competition to discover new comedy writers from the region. The brief is to write a half-hour comedy for theatre, TV or radio that is "refreshing, original and makes everyone fall about".

The winner will receive £1,000 and the entry will be shown to the Head of BBC Comedy. Five runners-up in the Falling About competition will each receive £200.

All six winning entries will be given a reading at Live Theatre in March.