Lincoln Park student wins top prize in City Theatre’s Young Playwrights Contest

A senior at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School is making an early name for himself as a playwright.

Henry Wahlenmayer’s play “The Box,” is one of six written by students in the region to be named as a winner of Pittsburgh City Theatre’s 2018 EQT Young Playwrights Contest.

“The Box” will debut on stage 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20 and 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21 as part of the annual Young Playwrights Festival. Three submissions selected from high school and three from middle school are given professional productions at the festival. Student playwrights also have the opportunity to develop their scripts in collaboration with professional theatre artists—a director, dramaturges, and actors—for productions in City Theatre’s Hamburg Studio.

“The Box” tells the story of three high school friends who return to their hometown for a funeral after their free spirit friend, Dan, passes away. After years apart, the trio remembers the past differently and struggles to draw the line between nostalgic memories and high school’s humbling realities. As they look through a box of mementos Dan left behind, they rekindle the true friendships they’ve forgotten, while discovering their memories are not as perfect as they thought.

Wahlenmayer, a writing and publishing major, wrote “The Box” based on the second Ensemble Immersion show, overseen by Dr. Todd Goodman, this past spring at Lincoln Park. Ensemble Immersion, or EI, is a collaborative theater experience that brings students together for a production that includes dancing, acting, films, and live music. After converting the show, he submitted his play to the contest.

“All of the different artistic majors sort of collaborate on it and I was the head writer last year,” he said. “I wanted a story that could combine a lot of the things.”

Kristen Link, director of education and accessibility at City T