Dorset Theatre Festival to Stage Reading of Student Play DRIVING ME NUTS, 9/12

Dorset Theatre Festival is proud to announce the winners of its 3rd annual Jean E. Miller Young Playwrights Competition. In the high school category, Andrea Ameden of Long Trail School wins for her untitled play and in the middle school category, Sean Bottoms of Mettawee Community School wins with his play "Driving Me Nuts". Second place goes to Gretchen Hammell of Mettawee and Priscilla Hunnewell of the Maple Street School.

Now completing its third year, Dorset Theatre Festival's Annual Playwrights Competition provides an opportunity for students in regional middle and high schools to learn about playwriting and create a play of their own with the help of DTF playwriting mentors, a group of advanced playwriting students from Bennington College. After a series of workshops conducted in over 10 schools in the region, students are invited to submit a short play for adjudication by a panel of nationally recognized professional playwrights. Winners are selected from each group (middle and high school), and each winner receives a cash prize.

This Young Playwrights Competition is part of the DTF New Play Development Program, which works with playwrights and plays from conception to production, providing an incubator to help nurture new voices to speak from their own experience and engage ideas that come from and return to our community. This program has begun to attract regional as well as national attention. In addition to this school residency program, it includes Writers Residencies hosted with nationally recognized partner organizations, a Local First New Play Festival planned for Fall 2015, and an annual World Premiere of a New Play developed by DTF through its developmental programs.

The winning plays from the Young Playwrights Competition will be read aloud in a special staged reading on Friday, September 12th at 7 pm at the Dorset Playhouse after an awards ceremony. The ceremony and reading are open to the public and will feature a reception afterwards. For more information call 802-867-2223 or visit www.dorsettheatrefestival.org. The Dorset Playhouse is located at 104 Cheney Road, Dorset.