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Calling all student creators. The Solon Center for the Arts is offering area students in grades 4-12 the chance to see their original plays put on the stage.
Now in its 15th year, the SCA’s annual playwriting competition enables aspiring playwrights to create plays, watch them cast, follow the actors’ rehearsals and then be in the audience as their plays are brought to life on stage on May 26, 2023.
But the competition has a firm deadline. All plays must be submitted to the arts center via email by Jan. 20 at ktekesky@solohohio.org.
“We want students to be creative, to write plays about what they are interested in or what they know,” said Katherine Tekesky, the arts center’s theater department coordinator.
She said she is always impressed with the level of creativity of the local students who submit their plays every year.
“Sometimes we will have a student as young as 10 include mature themes like death or depression,” Ms. Tekesky said. “But we also have so many comedies. The kids are really good at making their audiences laugh.”
Students in fourth and fifth grades should write plays of at least five pages. Students in grades six through eight should include 10-page plays, and those in grades nine to 12 should write plays of about 15 pages, according to Ms. Tekesky.
She said she encourages students to be creative, to think outside the box and to submit their plays to this supportive community.
Each entered play is read and judged by a group of both Solon Center for the Arts staff members and theater professionals. The winning plays, those that will be staged, will be announced on Feb. 17.
“We choose the plays that can be put on stage and that will be able to be staged without a lot of costumes and sets,” Ms. Tekesky said.
She said that student actors in grades two through eight will learn the play’s lines and perform them on stage, following once-a-week rehearsals.
“We encourage the playwrights to attend the editing sessions, which really helps them learn the process of playwriting. We also encourage them to attend the casting sessions and rehearsals so that they can be an integral part of the production.”
Ms. Tekesky said many of the playwrights are also actors or part of their drama departments at school. But some are simply the ones that want to remain behind the scenes rather than on the stage, she said.
Either way, aspiring playwrights should put their pens to paper or their fingers to the keyboard over the next couple of weeks to make sure their creative work has an opportunity to be selected as one of the winning entries. And then they could get to see the lights of the stage this spring.
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