Young Playwrights Festival Coming To Waterford

Information via Eugene O'Neill Theater Center

WATERFORD, CT— The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center is pleased to announce the five featured playwrights and 14 honorable mention guest playwrights who will be taking part in the upcoming 17th Annual Young Playwrights Festival, to be held from May 13-15, 2022 on the organization’s Waterford campus.

The recipient of two Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts, the O'Neill is a world-renowned development center dedicated to supporting new work and theater artists.

Employing the signature "O'Neill process," the festival provides local middle and high school students professional-level support to develop their original one-act plays.

The five Featured Playwrights (and their plays) at the 2022 Festival will be:

Sierra Blanco – The Modern American Dragonslayer on the 4th of July; Professional Children’s School, NY (Monterey, CA)
Ella Brady – Somewhere out There; Old Saybrook HS (Old Saybrook, CT)
Isabella Dioquino – Death Deadlines; Clark Lane MS (Quaker Hill, CT)
Emma Montieth – Mr. Hit Man; New London Multi Magnet HS (Quaker Hill, CT)
Hazel Siu – Small Bank; Waterford HS (Waterford, CT)

The fourteen Guest Playwrights who will be joining them this weekend will be:
Eliana Álvarez – Birthday; Fitch HS (Groton, CT)
AJ Cash – Dying To Love You; ISAAC School (New London, CT)
Jada Collins – Times Running Out; Clark Lane MS (Waterford, CT)
Arthur Dhervilly – The Burning Sparrow; Clark Lane MS (Waterford, CT)
Rami Elhadhoudi – Pen Guin's Takeover; Clark Lane MS (Waterford, CT)
Leo Fishman Janowitz – He said / He said; Interlochen Arts Academy, MI (New York, NY)
Alexis Grasdock – All The Words I Never Said; Lyme-Old Lyme HS (Old Lyme, CT)
Lily Griffin – Punk Club 51; Fitch High School (Groton, CT)
Will Grimes – Loyalty Oath; Noble and Greenough School (Chestnut Hill, MA)
Jayden Kujawski – The Elders; Old Saybrook MS (Old Saybrook, CT)
Marcus Lowy – The Desire; Old Saybrook MS (Old Saybrook, CT)
Gabrielle McKayle – Merry Christmas?; Rockville HS (Vernon, CT)
Mikayla Senkewitcz – The Chalice of Dionysus; Waterford HS (Waterford, CT)
Juan Vieyra – Gone for an hour or two; Old Saybrook HS (Old Saybrook, CT)

This year’s Featured Playwrights will spend a weekend at the O'Neill with a dedicated creative team - director, dramaturg, and actors composed of National Theater Institute alumni - helping them stage their plays. The development process draws on principles and techniques used during the O'Neill's renowned National Playwrights Conference. Students will hone their work, furthering it from the initial isolation of writing to the collaborative process involved in making their script into a living, breathing play.

“After a couple years of digital and hybrid versions of our festival, it pleases me to no end to be able to invite all nineteen of our young playwrights onto the O’Neill campus to experience the process of live rehearsals and play development,” says Sophia Chapadjiev, YPF’s Artistic Director and Director of Education. “Our young playwrights are the center of our YPF programming and we are so pleased to have them back with us in-person and look forward to sharing their work with the public on Sunday at 5pm.”

The five selected students can expect a rigorous exploration of their work, assistance from professional artists, full rehearsals with an artistic team, and opportunities to revise their play in the lead up to their performance as staged readings on Sunday, May 15. Additionally, throughout the weekend, the fourteen Guest Playwrights will also have the opportunity to observe the development process as well as the chance to hear their plays read aloud.

Performances of the five featured plays will be on Sunday May 15 at 5pm in the Dina Merrill Theater, located on the O’Neill’s campus at 305 Great Neck Road in Waterford. Seating will be on a first come, first serve basis, and attendees are asked to pay what they can to help support the festival. Masks will be required to be worn during the performance.