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About the Festival

The Young Playwrights Festival invites a cohort of students to spend a weekend at the O'Neill with a dedicated creative team—director, dramaturg, and actors—to help them develop their short plays. Students receive a rigorous exploration of their work guided by professional artists as well as a script-in-hand public reading of their new play. With this approach, the young playwrights hone their piece, furthering it from the initial isolation of writing to the collaborative process involved in making their script into a living, breathing play. Additional students are invited as Guest Playwrights to spend the weekend observing the development processes, attending playwriting workshops and rehearsals, and hearing their own scripts read aloud.

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Students gather to listen to their plays being read by professional actors at the Young Pl

PUBLIC PERFORMANCE

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The Young Playwrights Festival performance features five plays by middle and high school students presented as staged readings. The 2025 play selections are as follows: ​

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  • Pursuing the American Dream by Carson Brown; Clark Lane Middle School, 8th grade - Waterford, CT

  • Shadows of Pride by Tia George; Robert E. Fitch High School, 12th grade - Groton, CT

  • Terrifying Deja Vu by Aleena Hasan; Riverdale Country School, 9th grade - Bronx, NY

  • 450 Minutes by Callum Hicks; Saint Ann's School, 11th grade - New York, NY

  • Oni No Mori by Elsa Ross; Groton Middle School, 7th grade - Groton, CT

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Tickets for this event are pay-what-you-can and can be reserved online. If tickets sell out online, a standby line will be use to fill any open seats.

May 18 5:00pm

We also commend the following students for being selected as Guest Playwrights and will attend the festival to participate in workshops and hear readings of their own scripts:​

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  • Ghosts of the Jungle by Henry Bosché; Saint Bernard School, 7th grade - Groton, CT

  • The Magical Monday by Elara Corriveau; Groton Middle School, 7th grade - Mystic, CT

  • in the cosmos by Lily Dunham; Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, 11th grade - New York, NY

  • Cursed by Kayla Franklin; Old Saybrook Middle School, 7th grade - Old Saybrook, CT

  • Lost by Angelina Gammone; Clark Lane Middle School, 8th grade - Quaker Hill, CT

  • Being Seen by Bee Kanofsky; Lehigh Valley Charter High School, 12th  grade - Pen Argyl, PA

  • Rest Their Souls by Basil Lee; Pittsburgh CAPA, 11th grade - Pittsburgh, PA

  • Chess in the Park by Max Leventon; Choate Rosemary Hall, 12th grade - Greenwich, CT

  • A Dance Among the Dead by Lorelai Maynard; Clark Lane Middle School, 8th grade - Waterford, CT

  • Slim by Samantha Olokodana; Clark Lane Middle School, 8th grade - Quaker Hill, CT

  • Sold Out by Callan Scott; Washington Montessori School, 7th grade - Sharon, CT

  • The Not List by Summer Stern; Croton Harmon High, 10th grade - Croton on Hudson, NY

  • To the Top by Rebecca Tsai; Groton Middle School, 7th grade - Groton, CT

  • Unseen by Leah Weiser; Walnut Hill School for the Arts, 11th grade - Natick, MA

  • Ophelia: A Christmas Special by Zixuan Xin; The Lawrenceville School, 11th grade - Lawrenceville, NJ

  • What We Keep by Chloe Zhao; Trinity School, 11th grade - New York, NY

JOIN US THIS SUMMER AS WE WRITE THE NEXT ACT OF THE AMERICAN THEATER.

Season overview >

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