Students Seize the Stage for One Powerful Evening: Young Playwrights Festival on May 19

by Violet Massie-Vereker

PMHS — One-night-only event, the high school’s theater program, Sock ‘n’ Buskin, presents the best kept secret of the year—the entirely student-run Young Playwrights Festival.

The event invites students to write their own ten-minute plays, which are then reviewed and presented to a board of directors, who set out casting and organizing rehearsals

“It’s really cool to see your writing come to life onstage,” said Siobhan Joyce-Farley, a sophomore, and an actor and playwright for the festival this year.

This year, the Young Playwrights Festival 2017 will be presented in the PMHS Auditorium on May 19 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be available at the door for $10.

Junior Priya Varanasi, an actor and co-director for Young Playwrights Festival 2017, said, “I’ve never been a part of anything completely student run, especially regarding theater.”

The festival, produced since 2006, is one of the best activities the high school offers. It allows for a unique, innovative experience for students. It isn’t professionals telling student performers what to do, but teens working together, taking ownership, drawing emotion from each other, and brainstorming their way to a live production.

“While I had already seen many of these teens performing in school or SOOP theatre productions, it was incredibly powerful to see them performing in pieces that they had written and directed themselves, where they could give a voice to the issues and concerns that are closest to their hearts,” said Louise Kelly, the mother of a festival actress, speaking of last year’s performances. “This is an event not to be missed.”