2021 Young Playwrights Festival

To our audience,

I remember calling Elena, Rivers and Amelia last May to tell
them they had won our contest. They were excited, but it was
a hard conversation since I had to admit we didn’t know what
the festival would look like this year. At the time, we all thought
Covid-19 would be more short-term than it’s turned out to be.
With City Theatre’s reassurance that we were committed to
producing their stories, our playwrights dived in headfirst to
revising their plays. They have worked so incredibly hard all
while dealing with a global pandemic. We are so proud of them
and their plays and couldn’t have asked for a better team.

Any chance to create art in the time of Covid-19 feels like a gift.
To be able to create art and lift young voices in the time of Covid
feels like winning the lottery. Bringing life to these plays has
stretched the staff and production team’s creativity and
collaboration muscles. Supporting our three playwrights and
the messages they are telling, all via Zoom, has been a wild and
crazy ride as our teams have learned new skills and storytelling
forms, but oh-so-worth-it, and incredibly rewarding.

We hope viewing the Young Playwrights Festival this year brings
you an enjoyable moment of respite. 2020 was rough, and we
know we’re not out of the woods just yet. But finding the time
to create and appreciate art, particularly art created by young
voices, makes all of us at City Theatre hopeful for the time we
can gather again at the theatre with you.

Wishing you much health and happiness this winter.

Katie Trupiano
Director of Education
City Theatre Company

CAST:

How Not to Fail AP World History
with a Little Paranormal Assistance
Claire – Claire Sabatine
Crystal – DaMya Gurley
Ms. Fowler – Jenny Malarkey
Andrew – James Counihan
Ghost – Philip Wilson

Fracture
John – John Feightner
Lynda – Jenny Malarkey
Christine – Dominique Briggs
John Sr. – John Feightner
News Reporter – James Counihan

A Banshee Wails
Banshee – Claire Sabatine
Woman – Becki Toth
Narrator – John Feightner
Gerty – DaMya Gurley

Meet the Playwrights:

ELENA EISS (Playwright – How Not to Fail AP World History with a
Little Paranormal Assistance) is a freshman literary artist at
Pittsburgh CAPA, where she also went to for middle school. For
two years starting in seventh grade, she wrote and revised her one
act play, and it was chosen to be performed by the theater
department of her school when she was in eighth grade.
However, that never was able to happen due to the Covid-19
pandemic, so she is very excited and grateful to see her play be
performed in the Young Playwrights Festival. She would like to
thank her playwrighting teacher at CAPA, Kathleen Donnelly,
her dramaturg, Mora V. Harris, everyone at City Theatre, her
literary arts peers, and her friends and family for their help,
support, and encouragement. Elena’s play comes from her
interest in the paranormal, especially ghosts who are more
comedic than scary.

AMELIA KOVACH (Playwright – A Banshee Wails) is a Senior at
Sharpsville High School, located Northwest PA. Her family lives
on The Walnut Hill Farm, where they raise grass fed livestock.
Amelia does a little reading, a little writing, a little acting, a lot of
procrastinating. She likes to knit, and her most often occurring
nightmare is that she actually doesn’t know how to read, and
everyone has just been going along with it. She’d like to thank the
people at City Theatre for this ridiculously cool experience, and
each of her teachers. She promises not to signal your untimely
demise.
RIVERS LECHE (Playwright - Fracture) is a freshman at
Northwestern University, and is thrilled to have her play
premiere at City Theatre. Throughout her time at Winchester
Thurston High School, she participated in many shows and
musicals, where her love of playwriting was ignited. She would
like to thank Ms. Kristin Kovacic for being an encouraging yet
challenging teacher, as well as her dramaturge TJ for all of his
amazing insights and advice. Finally, she would like to thank her
family and friends for their love, faith, and understanding.

For This Production:

Charlese Dawson..........................Assistant Festival Coordinator
Annie DiMario..................................Dramaturg (A Banshee Wails)
Clare Drobot.........................................................Script Supervisor
Tony Ferrieri............................................................Props Designer
Monteze Freeland................................................................Director
Mora Harris....................Dramaturg (How Not to Fail AP World...)
Ryan Looke......................................................Festival Coordinator
TJ Parker Young.............................................Dramaturg (Fracture)
Britt Pierce...............................................................Sound Designer
Sasha Schwartz..................................New Media Scenic Designer
Alex Talbot............................................................OBS Programmer
Katy Zapanta.............................................................Literary Intern

Young Playwrights Teaching Artists

Annie DiMario
Rita Dorsch
Mora Harris
Ali Hoefnagel
Alex Manalo

Joseph McGranaghan
Maggie Sulka

Board of Directors:

PRESIDENT
Alex Condron†

VICE PRESIDENTS
Judy G. Cheteyan †
Jeffrey D. Solomon†

TREASURER
K. Scott Baker†

SECRETARY
Matthew J. Galando †

MEMBERS

David Betts† Nancy Traina

Tacy M. Byham, PhD Tamara Tunie

Steve Carpenter Deepak Wadhwani

Betty Cruz † Nancy D. Washington, PhD †

Lewis B. Gardner, Esq. † Executive Committee Members

Kenneth A. Glick, MD

Caitlin Green

Marc Masterson, ex officio

Michelle McCreery, Esq.

James McNeel, ex officio

Delvina Morrow

Marcia Morton

Barbara Rudiak, PhD

Susan B. Smerd, PhD

Funders:

City Theatre would like to extend a huge thank you to the
foundations and funders that support our educational
programming.

The Buhl Foundation
The Anne L. & George H. Clapp Charitable and Educational Trust

EQT Foundation
The Grable Foundation
The Huntington National Bank
The Jack Buncher Foundation
The Laurel Foundation
Pennsylvania Department of Education
PNC Charitable Trusts

UPMC Health Plan
The Hilda M. Willis Foundation

To make a tax-deductible donation in support of City Theatre
or its education initiatives, visit

CityTheatreCompany.org/donate or contact
Dianne Duursma, Director of Development, at

[email protected].

Administration at City Theatre

Artistic Director.....................................................Marc Masterson
Managing Director....................................................James McNeel
Associate Artistic Director........................................Clare Drobot
Associate Producer.............................................Monteze Freeland
Director of Education.............................................Katie Trupiano
Literary Intern.............................................................Katy Zapanta
Director of Development...................................Dianne Duursma
Institutional Grants Manager..............................Natalie Hatcher
Marketing Director................................................Nikki Battestilli
Director of Ticketing and Patron Services............Joel Ambrose
Company Manager.........................................................Ryan Looke
Patron Services Manger..............................................Jenna Wilkin
Ticketing Manager...............................................Abigail Sarnacki
Box Office Associates....Kate Abel, Alec Davis, Justin Gingrich,
Megan Hamm
House Managers.........................Amy Ehrenberg, Jena Grgurich,
Caitlin Leasure, Maggie Sulka, Noah Welter

Production at City Theatre:

Director of Production/Res. Scenic Designer......Tony Ferrieri
Production Manager.........................................Rachel D’Amboise
Resident Production Stage Manager............................Patti Kelly
Associate Technical Director..................................David Maslow
Lead Scenic Artist..................................................Leah Blackwood
Scene Shop Foreman..................................John Michael Brucker
Scene Shop Carpenter.........................................Andrew Homyak
Costume Shop Manager...........................................Madison Hack
Sound & Media Engineer.........................................Brad Peterson
Master Electrician.....................................................Greg Messmer
Production Assistant..............................................Harbour Edney