Senior Wins PB Dramaworks Playwrights Competition

In Nazi Germany, a Jewish father and his two children huddle together in the basement of a cigarette factory in Berlin, anxiously awaiting the arrival of their sole contact to the outside world. This is the stirring premise of senior Emeline Smith’s play On the Other Side, which has been named a winner of the Palm Beach Dramaworks Young Playwrights Festival.

 

This year, the organization received the largest number of submissions in the competition’s history. Smith’s work was awarded from a list of twenty finalists.

 

Upper school theatre director Jason Peck said Smith will now enter the process of workshopping her play with an ensemble of professional actors and directors. 

 

“We are tremendously pleased that Benjamin has a back-to-back winner in this competition, and it is, indeed, a huge honor,” Peck said. 

 

Smith’s professional staged performance will take place at Palm Beach Dramaworks on March 9th at 7:00 p.m.

 

Twenty-two Benjamin playwrights submitted work to the festival. Three additional students - Ryan Collins, Jakob Kroll, and Ella Hayes - were named finalists.