Daniel Madigan's UNCOUTH SUBSTITUTE Wins Hartford Stage's 2014 Young Playwrights Contest

Hartford Stage announces the three winning playwrights and the play, Uncouth Substitute, to be submitted to the Young Playwrights for Change: The Anti-Bullying Project:

Third Place - The Worst Kind of Hurt by Caitlyn Leahy from Marlborough, CT, Grade 7
Second Place - The Bullying Chronicles by Jocelyn Hoagland from Willimantic, CT, Grade 8
First Place - Uncouth Substitute by Daniel Madigan from Avon, CT, Grade 8

The project invited middle school students to write and submit 10-minute plays that explore the topic of bullying. The mission of this project is to harness the creativity of young playwrights and bring focus to real world issues. Young Playwrights for Change seeks to spark meaningful conversations about bullying in classrooms, schools, and communities that will ripple across our nation to provoke change.

All three plays will receive staged readings at our Youth Studio Share Day at 12:30 p.m. on March 15, at Classical Magnet School in Hartford. The Share features performances by the Monologue Building class and Private Voice students, and will culminate with the staged readings of the winning plays from the Young Playwrights for Change Competition.

On February 17, Daniel and Jocelyn met with Janine Nabers, this year's Aetna New Voices Fellow at Hartford Stage. Janine discussed playwriting and the plays with each of the writers.

Uncouth Substitute will be included in a print and e-book anthology along with 13 other plays by young authors. Plays will be made available, accompanied by currlucum materials, for download on the TYA/USA and AATE websites on May 15. Daniel's play was submitted to the national Young Playwrights for Change contest and judging is underway. The national judges are Paula Donnelly, Gary Garrison, Marty Johnson, Aba S. Kumi, Louis Sachar and Mary Hall Surface.

Visit http://assitej-usa.org/programs/dramatic-change for more information about the judges and the national contest. The national winner will be announced on March 15.

Now its 50th Anniversary season, Hartford Stage is one of the nation's leading resident theatres, known internationally for producing classics, provocative new plays and musicals, and neglected works from the past, as well as a distinguished education program that reaches 21,000 students annually. Currently under the leadership of Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts, Hartford Stage has earned many of the nation's most distinguished awards, including a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, the Margo Jones Award for Development of New Works, OBIE awards, two New York Critics Circle Awards, a Dramatists Guild/CBS Award and an Elliot Norton Award, and has produced nationally renowned titles, including the Broadway productions of Enchanted April and Our Country's Good and the Off-Broadway productions of The Orphans' Home Cycle and The Carpetbaggers Children.

The 2012 Hartford Stage production of A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder is now playing to rave reviews on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre (www.agentlemansguidebroadway.com), and the 2013 production of Man in a Case is currently on national tour.

The leading provider of theatre education programs in Connecticut, Hartford Stage's offerings include student matinees, in-school theatre residencies, teen performance opportunities, theatre classes for students (ages 3-18) and adults, afterschool programs and professional development courses.

For more information, visit www.hartfordstage.org, www.facebook.com/hartfordstage, www.twitter.com/hartfordstage, www.pinterest.com/hartfordstageco, or www.youtube.com/hartfordstagect.

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