Penn Charter students win 2011 Philadelphia Young Playwrights contest

Thirteen Penn Charter sixth graders have won awards in the 2011 Philadelphia Young Playwrights contest. The students, who were in fifth grade when they wrote their plays, created them as part of the Lower School language arts curriculum. Each fifth grader wrote and submitted a play to Philadelphia Young Playwrights and later received feedback on it. Professional playwrights from the organization periodically visited the classroom to help guide students, who spent months crafting their plays.

The three first-place winning plays will be performed by undergraduate actors, in collaboration with Temple University Theaters, at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 South 18th Street, Philadelphia. Performance time is 11 a.m. on the dates listed below. 

First place winners were: Gwen Davis, Monsters at Night (Feb. 11); Adam Weil, The Chosen One (Feb. 11); and Christmas Cotter, Shadow Friend (Feb. 25).

Second place winners were: Priya Ahmad, Delay, Disrupt, and Destroy; Matthew Kestenbaum, This Play Is Out of this World; Alex Shipon, The Mind; and Topjor Tsultrim, Origami, Origami, and More Origami.

Third place winners were: Lilia Carpenter, Silverlight’s Mirror; Ellen O’Malley, One Friend; Caroline Robertson, Once Upon a Planet; Sabrina Snyder, Cat Normal; Victoria Watson, Jill, the Heiress; and Lily Weil, The Missing Piece.