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Play with Words: Reading of Plays 2023
Join us as we celebrate young playwriting talent. Students who submitted selected plays will see them produced in a reading on the Mill stage.
An honorarium of $50.00 will be awarded to the winning playwrights:
Gracie Lin, age 12, Princeton Day School
Maria Kesisoglou, sophomore, New Hope-Solebury High School
Maeve Sheehan, sophomore, New Hope-Solebury High School
Matilda Bray, high school junior, Solebury School
The Play With Words challenge encourages students in grades 6 through 12 to explore playwriting as a way to express ideas, stimulate creativity, stretch creative skills and discover the joy of artistic expression. It provides an opportunity to those who are looking for new writing opportunities to discover other student playwrights and hear their work.
The winning playwrights are encouraged to direct and cast their own plays. Whether a play is chosen or not, all submitted plays receive helpful commentary from the competition judges.
One of this year’s judges, local playwright Lisa Deangelis notes that, “Showcasing a student’s work on stage helps the playwright appreciate the reaction of a live audience to their play. With a moderated discussion after the readings, students will be able to ask and answer questions for further feedback from the audience.”
Our guest artist, playwright Griffin Horn, will lead the audience in a fun and eye-opening playwriting exercise.
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About Griffin Horn
Griffin Horn is a playwright and educator with a bachelor's degree in Drama from Kenyon College, and an master's in fine arts degree in Playwriting from Temple University. His full-length plays include “Our Hopeful Anxious Hearts,” which was a finalist for the Terrence McNally Award at Philadelphia Theatre Company, as well as “Trade,” and “The Lotus-Eaters."
He has taught classes through McCarter Theatre Center, as well as Arena Stage. He is a founding member of the It Gets Worse, But Then … Theatre Company, where he has collaborated on performances such as “Found.” He is currently a member of The Foundry, a new play incubator run by PlayPenn in Philadelphia.
Meet the Playwrights
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MATILDA BRAY
Matilda Bray is an 11th-grade student at the Solebury School who published her first book of poetry, “Under the Moon as my Sun,” in 2018. The book was featured on PhillyCam for the 2019 Philly Loves Poetry Interview and Reading Series. Moonstone Press will publish Bray’s second full-length collection, “When You Wanted Blue,” in the spring of 2023. Her work has been published in Rattle, Tipton Poetry Journal, Sad Girls Club, OpenDoor Magazine, the Schuylkill Valley Journal, River Poets Journal and the Moonstone Poets Anthology. Matilda, who regularly competes at open poetry competitions, is a voracious reader and cross-country runner, who resides in Bucks County, PA, with her family and beloved dog, Tuck.
MARIA KESISOGLOU
Maria Kesisoglou is a sophomore at New Hope-Solebury High School. She has taken on all sorts of creative endeavors, from music to graphic design, and is proud to present her first play, “Roll Over Beethoven,” written with her good friend and partner in crime, Maeve Sheehan.
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GRACIE LIN
Gracie Lin, age 12, attends Princeton Day School, where she enjoys her English and math classes, as well as playing the cello in the school orchestra. “Our Blue Period” is her first introduction to playwriting. Gracie also plays the piano as an extracurricular. Outside of school, she likes drawing, playing games and talking to her friends. Besides writing, she mainly focuses on visual art, and takes art classes after school. She was recommended for this competition by her former humanities teacher, Angharad Rebholz, and was excited to participate in it.
MAEVE SHEEHAN
Maeve Sheehan is a sophomore at New Hope-Solebury High School. Though “Roll Over Beethoven” is her first venture into playwriting, her theater experience includes the Bucks County Playhouse Youth Company’s production of “Dream Awake,” as well as her high school theater club’s productions of “Puffs,” “Mamma Mia!” “Twelfth Night” and the upcoming “Mean Girls.” Besides writing and acting, Maeve loves historical sewing, reading, and playing the cello and piano.
