Sixth Annual Young Playwrights 10-Minute Play Contest Winners Announced

Palm Beach Dramaworks has announced the 10 winners of its sixth annual Young Playwrights 10-Minute Play Contest (YPC). The plays will receive a staged reading by professional actors in front of an audience at the Don & Ann Brown Theatre on Wednesday, April 26 at 7:00pm. Tickets are free, but reservations are required.

Macy's is the sponsor of the YPC, which is open to students in grades 9-12 throughout Palm Beach County. The winners were chosen by a group of theatre professionals.

The YPC was established to introduce the joy of writing for live theatre to young people, and to give them an outlet for expressing their thoughts and ideas. The program has proved to be so popular that this season PBD is introducing the Young Playwrights 1-Minute Play Contest for middle school students. The winning plays will be performed at PBD on Sunday, April 30 at 2:00pm.

"The Young Playwrights 10-Minute Play Contest is an extraordinary opportunity to give high school students a voice, and for them to work with professional artists in preparing their plays for the stage," said Director of Education and Community Engagement Gary Cadwallader, who is directing all 10 plays. "In six years, we've read over 250 plays written by high school playwrights, and this year we received 45 plays for the inaugural 1-minute contest. We look forward to celebrating young writers by developing and producing their plays with the same level of professional care taken by PBD to develop all new works."

Below are the names of the winning playwrights (in alphabetical order) of the 10-Minute Contest, along with their schools and teachers.

Bianca Borchers* (Sr.) Park Vista HS Henry Richards

Sally Brown (Sr.) Somerset Academy Canyons Jeff Bartos

Kassidy Eaton* (Sr.) Royal Palm Beach HS Teddy Odum

Daniela Guarino* (Sr.) American Heritage School Liz Mignacca

Aditya Jasti (Sr.) The Benjamin School Jason Peck

Sophia Madden (Sr.) Royal Palm Beach HS Teddy Odum

Abigail McMullen (Jr.) American Heritage School Liz Mignacca

Oliver Shane (Soph.) William T. Dwyer HS Allison Ferrucci

Emily Singer (Sr.) Dreyfoos School of the Arts Brittany Rigdon

Abigail Trachtenberg (Jr.) American Heritage School Liz Mignacca

(*Also won in 2022.)