Two Suttons Bay Public High School students are finalists of the six announced in the 13th annual Young Playwright Festival competition.
The finalists, Minnie Bardenhagen and Isabel Schmidt, as well as Reegan Craker, a semifinalist, were selected for writing and submitting an original one-act play to a panel of judges. Plays were submitted in December, and 12 high school juniors and seniors were selected as semifinalists in the northwestern Michigan area. The now six finalists will be paired with national theater mentors who will coach them on fine-tuning their short plays and script-writing skills. In addition, students win $100 and get to see their plays performed on stage at the City Opera House on April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Students will not see their plays performed until the dress rehearsal the day before.
“Being able to have this experience for the second year in a row is so unbelievable. Opportunities like these fuel a new generation of writers, and I will always be grateful that so many kids like me get an opportunity to showcase their work,” said Bardenhagen, who was a finalist at last year’s festival as well. “I know how talented the other people who submitted are, as many of them were my classmates. I honestly just want my peers to know that they deserved their plays up on that stage just as much as I did. I know how hard they worked, and I promise them that I will make them proud.”
