Arena Stage announces ten winners of the 2008 Student Playwrights Project Ten-Minute Play Competition – an annual event in which Washington, D.C. metropolitan area students submit ten-minute original plays into competition. Nearly 700 works were submitted from students in 67 middle and high schools.

The ten winning playwrights will receive master classes in playwriting and work with an Arena Stage dramaturg to develop their plays. The plays will then be directed by an Arena Stage director and performed by professional actors.  In addition, Arena Stage will host two evenings of readings for the middle school and high school honorable mention plays.

Admission to the Student Playwrights Project performances is free, but reservations through the Arena Stage Sales Office are required: (202) 488-3300. All performances take place at the Warehouse Theater, 1017 7th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.

Top 10 Finalist Performances Wednesday, May 21 – 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 22 – 7:30 p.m.

Top 10 Finalist Performances
Wednesday, May 21 – 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 22 – 7:30 p.m.

Honorable Mention Readings Middle School Readings
May 13, 7:30 p.m. High School Readings – May 14, 7:30 p.m.

The Student Playwrights Project is a direct outgrowth of Arena Stage’s mission to expand the American canon with new work from diverse voices.

The Funeral, by Emma Bergman, Grade 7
Eastern Middle School, Silver Spring, MD

Waiting for Godot…to Leave, by Gabriel Brehm, Grade 12
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA

Bread Monster, by Shekinah Ceasar, Grade 12
Kingsbury Day School, Washington, D.C.

Learning to Care, by Katharine Nowell Keating, Grade 6
Belle View Elementary School, Alexandria, VA

Psycho Killers, by Stephen Miller, Grade 12
Central High School, Capitol Heights, MD

Off the Hinges, by Anthony Pape-Calabrese, Grade 10
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Bethesda, MD

The Trouble With Restaurants, by Forrest Penrod, Grade 7
The Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts, Washington, D.C.

The Dark Horse, by Thomas Frederick Smilack, Grade 12
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA

Like Forks and Spoons, by Emily Wolfteich, Grade 10
Thomas Edison High School, Alexandria, VA

Sunglasses, by Samantha Eunmi Yi, Grade 9
Fairfax High School, Fairfax, VA

From Another Angle, by Talia Lily Brenner
Chevy Chase Elementary School
The Diary Box, by Cassidy Burke
St. Elizabeth Catholic School
Once Upon a Time Ago, by Grace Gardner
Rachel Carson Middle School
A Real Soldier:  The Tale of a Drummer Boy, by Madison Hartke-Weber
Stuart-Hobson Middle School
The Great American Treasure, by Cole Headen
Belle View Elementary School
A Lesson Learned, by Emily Elizabeth Plumb
Belle View Elementary School
Antigone of Errors, by Fortney “Fish” Stark III
The Key School
Compulsion, by Katherine Turk
Rachel Carson Middle School
More Than Bagels for Water, by Sarah Wilson
Eastern Middle School
The Mary Lives We Led, by Meridian Alaina Reid Witt
Stuart-Hobson Middle School

The Shadow Spectre, by Joshua Alexander Katz
Kingsbury Day School
Happily, by Meghan Barnett
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
I Come to You Defenses Down, by Faye Donaya Haymond
George Mason High School
Banned, by Erin Kleiber
Thomas Edison High School
Ignorance Is Bliss, by I-Rong Lee
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
It Can Happen to Good Girls, Too, by Britney Nesbitt
Stonewall Jackson High School
The Best Man, by Lizzie Parmenter
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
Stranded, by Will Reidel
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Visions of Death, by Nader Valian
W.T. Woodson High School
The Simple Troubles of Childhood, by Amanda Zack
Thomas Edison High School

The Student Playwrights Project is supported in part by Ms. Toni Ritzenberg.

For more information, please call (202) 234-5782 or email education@arenastage.org.

Watch video performances of the 2005 winning plays on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage >