Florida Stage Announces Winners 11th Annual Young Playwrights Festival

Florida Stage ANNOUNCES WINNERS
11TH ANNUAL YOUNG
PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL

(Photo By Robert Goodrich)

For the eleventh year in a row, Florida Stage is presenting its Annual Young Playwrights Festival, a celebration of the playwriting skills of school children from throughout Palm Beach County. This year, six winning plays representing the work of ten talented young people have been chosen from more than two hundred submissions. Winners will have their work presented as a staged reading by professional actors in the Festival's culminating public performance at Florida Stage. The Young Playwrights Festival performance will be held at Florida Stage on Monday, March 28, beginning at 7:00 PM. Admission is free. The event is open to the public.

Each year, the Education Department of Florida Stage headed by Director of Education Heidi Harris works with hundreds of teachers and students throughout the county teaching playwriting, monologue writing and performance skills. The process teaches students to think more creatively and constructively, telling stories of their own lives, from their own oral histories and from their fertile imaginations.

Of the more than 200 submissions received at Florida Stage this year, the following students were chosen as the winners of this year's Florida Stage Young Playwrights Festival:

Elementary School

• Brother Trouble by Maya Morales & Emily Moreland
Kindergarten, H.L. Johnson Elementary School. Teacher: Tammy Nordlinger.

• Don't Chop Me by Nicole Kobosko, Sarah Kwon, Samantha Stern, & Kush Thakor
4th Grade, Equestrian Trails Elementary School. Teachers: Victoria Stedt & Elizabeth Richards.

Middle School

• The Boy with the Horse, by Kailee Hernandez
8th Grade, Emerald Cove Middle School. Teacher: Amy Yuzenas.

• Achak, the Chief, by Philip Ragusa
8th Grade, Emerald Cove Middle School. Teacher: Amy Yuzenas.

High School

• Compulsions Over Coffee, by Rebecca Kane
12th Grade, Boca Raton High School. Teacher: Melinda Clarke.

• What's on Your Mind?, by Stephanie Lopez
12th Grade, G-Star School of the Arts. Teacher: Matthew Stabile. 

Honorable Mentions:

Elementary

• The Water Cycle, by Ava Dinow, John-Gabriel Fehribach, Colby Johnson & Lillie Sargent
2nd Grade, Equestrian Trails Elementary School. Teachers: Victoria Stedt & Elizabeth Richards.

Middle School

• Aliens are What?, by Cameron Duran & Samantha Marshall
6th Grade, Bright Futures Academy. Teacher: Stephanie Artero.

High School

• Another Forbidden Love Story, by Charlie Cruzan & Eric Shirvani
11th Grade, Boca Raton High School. Teacher: Melinda Clarke.

• How to Write a Play, by Summer Gnage
11th Grade, Park Vista High School. Teacher: Linda Gonzalez.

The following students also demonstrated exceptional writing skills, and should be recognized for their efforts:
Joanna Diaz & Goda Graudinis, Emerald Cove Middle School
Adam Fabrikant, Nicole Hallett & Charlie Richstone, Equestrian Trails Elementary School
Paige Nicole Belcher, Boca Raton High School
Kendall Bartels & Daniel Parker, Boca Raton High School

Now in its 24th season, Florida Stage develops and produces new plays in a passionate, intimate and caring environment, adhering to a standard of uncompromising excellence. They provide a safe harbor for theatre artists and audiences to share in stories of our humanity, a place where the sheer joy of creation and experience is paramount. Through their productions and innovative educational programs they choose to provoke dialogue in their community and inspire people of various ages, ethnic and social backgrounds. www.floridastage.org

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