PITTSBURGH: City Theatre has announced the results of its annual regional playwriting contest for students in grades 7-12, a program the theatre has been running for 22 years, with the winning plays professionally produced by City Theatre and published in the Young Playwrights Anthology. 
“This year’s Young Playwrights Contest received over 250 submissions,” said Katie Trupiano, education director at City Theatre, in a statement. “Considering all the challenges of the past school year, we were elated to see so many compelling and authentic stories submitted. This year’s winners really prove that art continues to thrive, even while the world around us is changing. We look forward to staging these incredible plays in the fall and sharing them with our audiences.”
The four winning plays are Spring in the Underworld by Shelby Powers (7th grade, Burgettstown Middle School), Bird Without a Nest by Sophia Khan (7th grade, Sewickley Academy), A Boring Street in the Middle of Nowhere by Lucy Potts (9th grade, Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12), and Never Too Late to Change by Ayanna Bennett (10th grade, Alumni Theatre Company/Westinghouse Arts Academy).
Powers’s Spring in the Underworld imagines Hades and Zeus hatching a plan to find Hades a goddess, with comic and cosmic complications; Khan’s Bird Without a Nest tells the story of Aisha, who is trying to figure out who she is when she meets a unlikely friend in the park, sparking an interest in the birds around her; Potts’s A Boring Street in the Middle of Nowhere follows Isobel as she watches her neighborhood change around her, for better and worse; and Bennett’s Never Too Late to Change is about Jamila and Elijah, who take it upon themselves to teach their teacher and fellow classmates that there’s a lot more to Black history than slavery and Civil Rights.
For educators interested in sharing the festival with their students this fall, or for those who would like to learn more about bringing City Theatre’s Young Playwrights program to their classrooms, please contact ktrupiano@citytheatrecompany.org.
