Northport HS Students’ One-Act Plays To Be Produced At Engeman Theater

NORTHPORT, NY — Northport High School senior Harrison LeBow and junior Ella Piscatello’s one-act plays have been selected for the Young Playwright’s Festival at the John W. Engeman Theater on May 24, the school district announced.

The festival, which will be presented by the Northport Arts Coalition in partnership with the theater, invited students to submit one-act plays for consideration.

Those plays, including LeBow and Piscatello’s, will be produced and performed by theater actors during the festival. The two Northport students will work with the professional directors on edits and rewrites to their scripts and have a say in the overall production and creative process.

According to the Northport Arts Coalition, the students will “be a part of the entire process of staging a play, from auditions to rehearsals to tech to the final performance.”

Each student expressed their excitement at being selected, as they were two of only four students in the Town of Huntington to be chosen.

Piscatello’s play is about the limitations of technology and its impact on friendship, while LeBow's centers on a conversation between two men. Each one-act play will be performed for an audience during the festival alongside two additional plays from neighboring districts.

“It’s such an amazing experience to have the chance to be behind the scenes," Piscatello said. "Not on the stage, but to be a part of the writing process. I do theatre and love performing in shows, but it’s so much fun to take part in the other side of it."

LeBow didn’t previously have theater experience, but he does have significant writing and English experience and hopes to become an English teacher one day.

Piscatello plans to study English or creative writing and possibly minor in theatre.

Tickets are free and can be picked up in-person at the Engeman Theater box office.