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.”
Bardenhagen, Schmidt, and Craker are all students in “Writers Studio,” one of 22 programs operated by Northwest Education Services Career Tech Center (CTC). The two-year program, led by published poet and essayist Teresa Scollon, teaches high schoolers how to write in various creative and professional writing genres, helping to build a foundation for strong communications skills and extensive opportunities in college and career.
“We spend at least a month working on playwriting each year,” Bardenhagen said. “We read example plays, have guest speakers, and workshop each other’s work…” This is the second year that all three students have been in the playwriting program. For Schmidt, who’s always been interested in telling stories, going over the material again gave her a better understanding of how to write scenes, adding that reviewing her drafts with others helped her notice different elements in it.
“I’m a huge fantasy nerd, and so I mostly write fantasy fiction. Through the class, I’ve also learned to love poetry and nonfi ction… This is a great opportunity for me, and it means a lot,” Schmidt said. “This is a moment that makes me realize I love writing even more, and it’s sparking a love for writing plays. Honestly, I think this experience is amazing for all young writers, to at least go and watch the plays and the talk-back afterward.”
The community in the writer’s studio classroom is something Bardenhagen very much appreciates as it gives her a chance to be with like-minded people that understand her passion. She said their class instructor, Scollon, pushes students past any limits they may have and continuously makes them more inspired and curious in the process.
“I joined Writer’s Studio to study poetry. My main passion is music, and I love to write my own songs. Songwriting is just another form of poetry, and I always find myself taking little snippets of poetry from one of my many journals and turning it into a song,” Bardenhagen said. “Writing has always been a friend that I can count on. I love the creative freedom it gives me to express myself. Even though my career interests aren’t in the writing field, writing is never going to leave my life. I want to continue to learn and grow as a writer as I grow older.”
Craker said no matter the format, she’s also always been interested in storytelling as writing is one of the many ways she can share her stories and experiences with an audience. And while she won’t be studying a specific writing subject, Craker said she plans on working in film in the future which requires some professional writing knowledge.
“I like writing both fiction and nonfiction stories, as well as poetry. I find a lot of inspiration in science fiction and applying scientific research into my stories,” Craker said. “I enjoy applying the skills we learn in my own writing. At first, it doesn’t seem like some things we’d see or hear would be used in what I’d regularly write, but eventually I’d see the skills surface and the satisfaction stays with me.”
Schmidt’s play which will be performed on stage is titled “Hitchhiking” and follows two girls, one who is hitchhiking, and their developing relationship and problems they face.
“I wanted to do something outside of my comfort zone, but also to draw attention to the differences in personalities that people can have,” she said.
Bardenhagen’s play, which will also be performed at the Opera House, is titled “My Best Friend’s Wedding Reception,” and follows the character “Yolanda,” who tries to crash a wedding reception and is stopped by a worker.
“After arguing with the worker and meeting a drunk man who is in love with the bride, she runs away to put on a disguise and sneak into the party. I won’t spoil the ending, you’ll just have to come see it,” Bardenhagen said. “I get my character inspiration from real life people. Last year, one of my characters was directly based on a guy I go to school with. His complicated personality made him the perfect kind of character to create conflict. The same thing happened this year with my main character, Yolanda. Once I find characters, the plot almost writes itself.”
