Fossil Ridge High School is known for it’s sporting events and academic accomplishments, but there is also a huge amount of talent in the arts department. Following the state theatre convention that is held in Denver every fall sophomore, Parker Bennett, and Juniors Abby Meyer and Nic Rhodes were recognized for their playwriting abilities.
There was a playwright competition for the Denver Center for performing arts in which Meyer, and Rhodes were chosen as one of the top ten semifinalists out of 132 submissions and Bennett was chosen as one of the top ten semifinalists as well as being one of the top four finalists.
Meyer and Rhodes worked together and wrote a play called Imaginary Friends; Bennett wrote Counting in Clay; which is about a man who builds clay figures and lives among them. Bennett himself felt that the play was too ‘out there’ but he took a chance and submitted it. This play displayed the new, unique thinking the judges were looking for. Bennett has been on both sides of theater. He was in West Side Story in April of last year and he will make another appearance in The Addams Family coming up this spring. Bennett confesses he likes writing better, “I enjoy writing more personally because you can do a little bit more and you can give other people other things to do and that makes it more creative for me.” He also has film experience in the way of scripting since he is in the TV classes at Fossil.
In addition to a scholarship, the four finalists also have the opportunity to be mentored by professional playwright. These four will have their plays read at the Colorado New Plays Summit which is held at the Robert and Judi Newman Center for Theatre Education on Saturday, Feb 25 at 8pm. This coming summer one will be selected to be cast and produced by students and the writer gets to be a part of that process.
This writing competition focused primarily on the writing of one acts for the stage. Some of the requirements included it had to be an original, unpublished piece, previously unproduced, and it could be no more than 35 pages. The stakes were high and the competition was fierce but Fossil is very happy to have such talent at Fossil. These three students stretched themselves and came out on top. Their original idea are taking them places and we are all looking forward to what they’ll write next.
