On Friday, January 13, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., What’s On Your Mind (WOYM), a student-run playwriting club, held a play festival in the Performing Arts Center. This event featured eleven five to ten minute plays written and read by Concord Academy students. These writers began the year by learning the fundamentals of playwriting. As the semester progressed they drafted, edited, and revised their creations. The playwrights then worked with student-actors who had been attending the WOYM meetings to organize the stage reads that were performed at this event.
The WOYM play festival allowed students to showcase their work and had the whole CA community appreciate the time and effort put into creating these stage reads, by both the playwrights and the actors. Having events that highlight student work is incredibly important. “It’s an outlet for creativity that’s not as typical as an essay or even creative projects,” said Hannah Bodnar ’24, one of the co-heads of WOYM. Although CA classes do encourage creativity when working on projects, making time for events like this play festival gives students the opportunity to be creative and express themselves in ways that may be harder to achieve in a classroom setting.
When introducing their play, each playwright would give the audience a question to think about while they watched the stage read. These questions ranged from “How do you spend time with the people you love?” to “When is it time to let go of something, and what do you hold on to?” Many of these questions were related to how far something can go, such as “How far can forgiveness go?” or “How far can confidence take you?” Showcasing these questions allowed the audience to peer into students’ minds and admire their creativity.
Along with celebrating the amazing accomplishments of the students involved in this club, the WOYM play festival also reminded the CA community what WOYM is all about. Hannah expressed that “[she] hopes people are inspired to write their own plays.” WOYM is open to anyone who is interested in combining their love of theater with their passion for writing or acting. Many of the people involved in this festival were first-time playwrights at CA. “You don’t have to be talented beforehand or know what you’re doing to be able to do it,” said Hannah.