Being included in the programme for the New Zealand Festival - the country's largest arts festival - and commissioned to do a work is just incredible, according to the Trick of the Light Theatre team.
''The gauntlet has been thrown,'' performer and playwright Ralph McCubbin Howell said.
''It's an incredible vote of confidence which we do not take lightly.''
While Trick of the Light is based in Wellington, Mr McCubbin Howell and director Hannah Smith have close ties with Dunedin.
Ms Smith grew up in the city, attending Logan Park High School where she discovered her passion for theatre through the late Denise Walsh, and Mr McCubbin Howell received a Robert Lord residency in the city this year.
The company has also performed at Dunedin's Fringe Festival and this year's production of Beards, Beards, Beards won its best theatre award.
NZ Festival artistic director Shelagh Magadza had her first visit to Dunedin to see Trick of the Light workshop the script for The Devil's Half-Acre.
She discovered a ''beautiful script'' which backgrounded New Zealand's story, she said.
''The actual story is of the little people caught up in the fever of finding a better life and instead discovering a hard life where poverty was rife and there was this sense of unlawfulness.''
The company also had a season at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a previous play which sold out, a rare achievement given the competition at the event, she said.
One of the beauties of the NZ Festival was its ability to help companies go to the next level in their work.
''They have done a lot of work, performing at fringe festivals. Hopefully this can help them expand their ambitions and go to the next level.''
For Mr McCubbin Howell and Ms Smith the ''vote of confidence'' gave them a chance to invest more into their work.
They work full-time for the company, touring their productions around the country's art festivals.
''We're art gypsies. We love it so much,'' Ms Smith said.
''I never thought it would be possible to make a living working in theatre, so it's glorious we can.''
The pair met at Victoria University's theatre programme but had a soft spot for Dunedin and bring their work to the city whenever possible. The region also features in their work.
Their second play Road That Wasn't There, was a ''dark fairytale'' set in Central Otago.
It won an Auckland Arts Festival award at the Auckland Fringe Awards, as well as Chapman Tripp Awards for outstanding New New Zealand play, most promising director, and production of the year.
The Robert Lord residency had allowed Mr McCubbin Howell to write the new play which would show at the NZ Festival.
It is set in the slums of goldrush-era Dunedin in what was known as the devil's half acre and combines puppetry, live music and a score by Tane Upjohn-Beatson.
''It is an era rich with inspiration,'' Mr McCubbin Howell said.
The play features two conmen, one of whom will be played by Mr McCubbin Howell, who have come to make good in the brave new world, only to be commissioned to do some dangerous work by a mysterious stranger.
''It explores ideas of the state of flux and the sense of the endless possibilities for danger in a time when the powerhouse of New Zealand lay south of the Waitaki River.''
The NZ Festival has its 30th anniversary next year and it will run from February 26 to March 20.
One of the five biggest festivals in Australasia, it has sold about two million tickets across the past 15 festivals and drawn a total attendance of more than five million people to its free and ticketed events.
Rebecca Fox's attendance at the NZ Festival launch was made possible by Tourism Wellington.
