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Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Announces 12th Annual Young Playwrights Festival
The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center has announced its selections for the 12th Annual Young Playwrights Festival.
WATERFORD, CT — The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center has announced selections for the 12th annual Young Playwrights Festival. A world-renowned developer of new work and new artists for the American theater, the O’Neill is the winner of two Tony Awards and National Medal of Arts.
Employing the signature “O’Neill process,” the festival provides professional support to develop original one-act plays written by middle and high school students (age 12-18). Selected from 186 nationwide entries, the five student playwrights will work collaboratively with a professional creative team to breathe life into each play.
Entires include:
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- Worth More by Grace Clarke, Fitch High School; CT
- Love at First Catch by Lauren Knowles, Waterford High School; CT
- Achilles' Dilemma by William Palmer, Williams School; CT
- A Timepiece of Mind by Amanda Rowe, Clark Lane Middle School; CT
- Saving Grace (The Human Experiment) by Lucy Sydel, LaGuardia Arts High School; NY
The festival culminates with a public presentation featuring script-in-hand performances of each student's work Sunday, May 14 at 5 p.m. in the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Dina Merrill Theater (305 Great Neck Road, Waterford). The presentation is free and open to the public.
Additionally, 16 young playwrights were selected to participate in the Guest Playwright Observation program.
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Selections include:
- Willow Trees by Grace Cassineri, Williams School; CT
- Torn in Two by Karishma Chouhan, Montville High School; CT
- A Blind Heart by Shane Crespin, West Side Middle School; CT
- Heaven Knows by Christina Diaz, Rockville High School; CT
- The Counterfeit Detective by Jimmy Kilcomons, Clark Lane Middle School; CT
- Hunger for Knowledge by Philip Knowlton, Williams School; CT
- Through Sickness and in Health by Jennifer Lussier, Fitch High School; CT
- Two Guns and One Man by Leslie Ann Melendez, ISAAC; CT
- Please Say Something by Claire Morgan, Fitch High School; CT
- Brace for It by Briana Nelson, Clark Lane Middle School; CT
- Dysfunction by Meghan Nowak, Waterford High School; CT
- Secrets of the Locket by Kate Paecht, Cutler Middle School; CT
- Salted Butter by Bridget Pegg, Incarnate Word Academy; MO
- Family Nights with the Fletchers by Joseph Sexton, McNair Academic High; NJ
- God is a Dinosaur by Nidhi Somineni, Clark Lane Middle School; CT
- Coffeehouse Bridge by Benjamin Weber, Great Neck South High School; NY
students are writing and submitting to YPF,” Young Playwrights Festival Director Sophia Chapadjiev said in a release. “Our five selected playwrights are exploring a broad range from moments in history to imagined future possibilities: Greek myth, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, women in baseball, mystical
time-shifting characters and a young girl who defies expectations are all part of this year’s YPF, and our ensemble of 30+ actors, directors, designers, dramaturges and mentors - comprised of National Theater Institute alumni - are looking forward to being of humble service to our young playwrights’ works.
Chapadjiev, a playwright herself, has had her own work produced in the U.S. and internationally.
Funding for the Young Playwrights Festival program is provided by: Bodenwein Public Benevolent
Foundation, Charter Oak Federal Credit Union, Chelsea Groton Foundation, Community Foundation
of Eastern Connecticut, and Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association Foundation.
Image via Shutterstock.
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