Playwriting competition: Hotchner winners announced

The Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences has announced winners for the 2005 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition.

Four student plays were selected in two categories. Full-length winners were Highness, by junior Carolyn Kras, and Shades of Light Blue, by junior Yuan Ji.

Flick, by freshman Nicholas A. Loyal, and Chosen Family, by freshman Nick Rogers, won for short plays.

The annual Hotchner competition — endowed by alumnus, novelist, poet and playwright A.E. Hotchner — is open to all WUSTL undergraduate and graduate students. Winning plays are selected by blind jury.

This year’s adjudicators included Carter W. Lewis, playwright-in-residence in the PAD; Anna Pileggi, senior artist-in-residence; Andrea Urice, artist-in-residence; and Susan Gregg, associate artistic director for the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

In November, the four winners will take part in the A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival. The two-week long workshop will feature a guest dramaturg and will culminate in staged readings of all four works, to be directed by PAD faculty.

In addition, the two full-length winners will be eligible (along with winners of the 2006 competition) for full production as part of the PAD’s 2006-07 season.