The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Artful Living brings playwrights to Kate
OLD SAYBROOK — Three student-written plays were chosen by a panel of Connecticut theater professionals to be stage-read at The Kate on Sunday, April 29, at 4 p.m.
Artful Living, a community theater dedicated to building intergenerational community offered students statewide the opportunity to write original plays. If chosen, Artful Living would bestow an educational scholarship award to the authors and the play would be produced with local actors at The Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center.
The new project, Playwrights for Tomorrow, has a mission to provide Connecticut youth with an opportunity for artistic expression through stage-reading and producing their original short plays and empowering their art through scholarship awards.
“We wanted to give youth the opportunity to give voice to what really matters to them through the validating venue of artistic expression,” said producer Chris Solimene. “It’s no surprise that what rises as most pressing in the psyches of students is the reflection of the shadow side of their culture; school gun violence, depression that could lead to suicide and the lack of familial security as result of divorce.”
The student playwrights, chosen from Greater Hartford Academy of Arts, and Torrington and Montville high schools, have been dedicated to collaborating with directors on staging their plays. The actors are mostly veterans to local productions.
The parts of youth are read by students from school districts including HaddamKillingworth, Valley Regional and Branford. The judges included Goodspeed Opera House’s Lori Cartwright, Hartt School’s John Pike, founder of Guilford High School Theatre Art Pat Souney, past adjudicator for Connecticut Drama Association Maggie Jennings and Artistic Director/Founder of Artful Living Chris Solimene.
Tickets are $15; reserve at www.katharinehepburntheater.org/events-tickets/ Box Office or call 860-5100453.