Sophomore Carin Estey can say something that many aspiring students cannot: she has become an official playwright. Estey’s original short play, A World with Three Sides, was chosen for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s Young Playwrights Festival. Estey found out about her accomplishment in April, after 142 plays were submitted to the program.

A World with Three Sides revolves around a man who is a character in a play; “Not the actor, but the actual character itself,” Estey described, “His life repeats every single night. He is the only one seemingly aware of this though. He is also hopelessly in love with the lead girl who has no idea he exists because he is just ensemble.”

Estey said, “It was so awesome to see my work come to life. It was weird to see something that was like in my head a year and a half ago being performed by real actors on stage and hearing my words out loud. Everyone I worked with was really incredible and they made it more than I ever imagined it could be.”

Estey was not the only Lancer recognized by the festival, however her’s was the only one to have a staged reading. Junior Melissa Close’s original play, We’re Leaving, was given an honorable mention as one of the finalists, allowing Close to attend the festival’s weekend activities.

Close said, “It was really awesome to have the opportunity to spend the weekend at the O’Neill. The experience really helped me to understand ways that I could edit myplay to make it even funnier. My [assigned] mentor held discussions about the plays that were produced and what the process was like to see it go from script to actually being on stage.”

Other students who received honorable mention included senior Joshua Kelly, and juniors Noah Todd and Micah Greenleaf.