Four plays written by students and an alumnus were chosen to be performed at playwright festivals featuring young writers. The Blank Theatre’s Young Playwrights Festival will produce plays by Patric Verrone ’13 and Aiyana White ’14 in June. Sabrina Batchler ’15 and Alex McNab ’14 will have their plays produced in the fall after winning awards from the Young Voices with New Visions Short Play Competition. 
The Blank Theatre will produce White’s play “Barophobia” and Verrone’s play “The Son Also Rises,” which discusses issues such as sexuality, substance abuse and sexism through a group of friends on their way to a music festival. 
“The Blank did a fantastic job producing ‘Eve’ last year, and I was ecstatic to get the call that ‘The Son’ had been accepted,” Verrone said. “I can’t wait to start working with the director and the actors to see what it becomes.” 
Award-winners from the Young Voices with New Visions Short Play Competition will also have their plays produced in Georgia in the fall. 
McNab wrote his play, “Duck and Pigeon discuss the Finer Points of AFLAC,” during his sophomore year. The story is inspired by an AFLAC commercial with a breakdancing pigeon. In his play, the main characters “Duck” and “Pigeon” are both plagued by stereotypes from the commercial.
“I’m really excited that it will be produced, but I probably won’t be able to see it since it’s in Georgia,” McNab said. “But this is the first time anything I’ve written has been produced on a stage.”
Batchler will have her play “Save the Date” produced in the festival. Although it was originally written for the Harvard-Westlake Playwrights Festival, it was not chosen to be performed. Performing Arts teacher Christopher Moore then encouraged her to submit to other playwright competitions, and “Save the Date” ended up winning the gold medal.
“I’ve never thought of myself as a writer, but both my parents are, and my older brother had two plays accepted into the Playwrights Festival, so I decided to go for it,” Batchler said. “Now everybody in my family will be a produced writer.”