Washington High School student wins playwright contest
Sasha Edwards added another award to her promising future in writing.
The 16-year-old Washington High School student was one of three high school students to win Pittsburgh’s City Theatre’s Young Playwrights Contest. Her one-act play, titled “Glad You’re Here”, beat out hundreds of entries, and will be performed by the theater group. Edwards is entering her senior year of high school and is a daughter of Elsa Edwards.
The annual Young Playwrights Contest accepts submissions from students in grades 7-12 in Western Pennsylvania and part of northern West Virginia. There are six winners: three each from middle school and high school. City Theatre received 350 submissions, a new record.
Edwards, who won a Gold Key in the 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Contest for poetry, drew inspiration for her play from her own life and the people surrounding her.
“I modeled the characters after people in my family, friends of mine and situations that I’ve experienced in my life and that I know that my friends have experienced,” Edwards said.
The plot revolves around a character named Tony, who struggles with wanting to leave his hometown but feels he has too many obligations to his family at home.
“His mother is sick, his grandmother is really old and can’t really take care of herself and his sister is young and in school. He feels like he has a duty to them,” Edwards said. “He decides to leave, but then a tragedy strikes, so he can’t.”
Edwards said she was also inspired by seeing friends who either suffered from mental illnesses or had family members who did, and those friends feeling a responsibility to help take care of relatives, regardless if the relatives treated them poorly or not. It’s one of the ideas “Glad You’re Here” focuses on, along with the sense of being trapped in a small town.
“I was inspired by the small-town mentality and how a lot of my friends feel like they are tied down to places like Washington and feel like they can’t leave here or ever get out of here,” Edwards said.
“Glad You’re Here” and the other winners will be performed during the Young Playwrights Festival Sept. 29 through Oct. 9 at City Theatre’s Hamburg Studio
Edwards enjoys participating in the theater and encourages other students to do so.
“I encourage anyone going into high school to take (a stage class) and to participate, even write your own stuff, for fun,” Edwards said.