The Ministry of Culture extended the deadline for the submission of applications to the National Dramaturgy Contest until November 30, 2009 as the number of works presented by the initial November 1 time limit was too low, Info-Prim Neo reports. Serghei Boboc, the head of the Arts and Artistic Education Division, has told the Agency that the prizes are valuable and the Ministry of Culture wants as many competitors as possible. According to Boboc, the works about Mihai Eminescu will be given priority as in January 2010 it will be 150 years of the bard’s birth. The prizes that will be offered to the winners include: the top prize of 11,000 lei, the second prize of 9,000 lei, the third prize of 7,000 lei, and the debut prize of 5,000 lei. The National Dramaturgy Contest is organized once in two years to develop national dramaturgy, diversify dramatic genres, enrich the repertoires of the national theaters, promote young talents, maintain the emulative spirit and stimulate the experiment in writing dramatic texts.