CHICAGO TEENS DELIVER THE
GOODS WITH ORIGINAL ONE-ACTS

Pegasus Theatre Chicago’s Young Playwrights Festival proves
—again—that fresh voices can write with candor, wit, and bite.

For the last 39 years, Pegasus Theatre Chicago’s Young Playwrights Festival (YPF) has been showcasing the fruits of enlightened collaboration. By exposing high school students to the fundamentals of writing for the stage, the YPF program has been enriching the literacy curriculum of Chicago secondary schools and bolstering the language-arts skills of its pupils.

Kianna Rose and Shelby Marie Edwards in BLIZZARD BOUND

Professional playwrights partner with participating schools to coach, guide, and act as short-term mentors, arming students with the tools to write compelling stories that reflect their lives and interests while also giving expression to their teeming imaginations. From there, committed classroom teachers take over the shepherding and steering process that ultimately enables teens to write stageworthy plays.

Rich Lazatin, Kianna Rose, Shelby Marie Edwards,
Peter Stielstra and Diego Rivera-Rodriguez in BLIZZARD BOUND

Last year, more than 1,500 high school students took part in the program, producing nearly 500 completed one-act scripts. From there, the best are selected for competition, with the top four developed for full production using professional actors. Traditionally presented at Chicago Dramatists in the River West neighborhood, the festival stages those winning plays each January—this year’s edition began on January 4 to 24.

Shelby Marie Edwards, Diego Rivera-Rodriguez (rear)
and Peter Stielstra in BLIZZARD BOUND

These winners typify the high levels of candor, insight, intelligence, and humor found in YPF productions. And although the program partners with schools throughout the city—including many in challenging neighborhoods—this crop of victors primarily hails from Chicago’s elite public high schools.

Leah Huskey, Rich Lazatin (rear) and Peter Stielstra in OFFICES, ETC.

Video clips of each playwright, discussing the inspiration for their stories and the road they traveled to arrive at this point of completion and success, precede each play.

Kianna Rose and Peter Stielstra in OFFICES, ETC.

Sophia Ponce from Whitney Young Magnet School chose to travel the “moment in time” route in Blizzard Bound. A growing snowstorm builds outside as Lola (Kianna Rose), the young owner of a small convenience store, looks forward to closing shop and heading home. Just seconds before she’s about to lock the door, a young couple swoops in searching for snacks to fuel a night of TV bingeing. Trying to rush them has no effect, and before she knows it, a budding teen with a fake ID slips in too—turning the shop into a gaggle of highly verbal personalities with few filters. Things get a little testy (and slightly anxious) when they realize the snow is now too deep to venture out. Then the power takes a nosedive.

Peter Stielstra and Rich Lazatin in OFFICES, ETC.

There’s also a funny twist when Lola’s ex, Tony (Rich Lazatin), shows up as an inept robber taking advantage of the blackout. A small sliver of life in a churning metropolis, Blizzard Bound gives you the chance to savor the kaleidoscopic jumble of humanity that makes up a city.

Diego Rivera-Rodriguez and Shelby Marie Edwards in A QUESTION

A Question, by Senn High School’s Lola Zimmerman, looks inward as two people contemplate impending doom from the vantage point of a park bench. Shelby Marie Edwards as Josephine and Diego Rivera-Rodriguez as Atticus have only minutes before a massive rock hurtling toward earth brings total annihilation. Although chance has now brought them together, they had both initially chosen to be alone during this final moment, and their conversation—about themselves and what is about to happen—echoes chiefly with quiet stoicism. It’s an elegant and chilly piece that highlights how our thoughts about impending death have remained largely the same through countless centuries and untold generations.

Diego Rivera-Rodriguez and Shelby Marie Edwards in A QUESTION

Toil and Trouble lights the imagination with glee as it looks in on three witches—all sisters in full witch attire—fussing over a vat as they try to perfect the special brew of one of them, the oldest, Belladonna (Leah Huskey). Feisty wordplay, prickly attitudes, and newfangled notions about all things witch churn with gusto in this clever mash-up of the volatile magic of sisterhood and freewheeling fantasy. Which is exactly what Lane Tech’s Ashley Snyder was looking to achieve in her foray into playwriting. Ms. Huskey as Belladonna, Ms. Edwards as Rosemary, and Ms. Rose in the role of Chrys are all smashing, making Snyder’s play snap with charm and vitality.

Leah Huskey, Shelby Marie Edwards and Kianna Rose in TOIL & TROUBLE

Similar energy surges with even more fervor in another Lane Tech student’s wonderfully performed effort called Offices, Etc., masterfully directed by Ilsea Duncan. Clark Tavas wrote this sly farce exposing the pitfalls of office hierarchies and the folly of assumed knowledge. As cleverly enacted as it was conceived, the capsule-sized comedy offers precocious insight into the world of business from the vantage point of a savvy young observer.

Leah Huskey in TOIL & TROUBLE

The cast throughout this year’s festival is patently delightful. But Aaron Warrow (understudy for Peter Stielstra), as the increasingly incredulous Michael in Offices, Etc., and Rich Adrian Lazatin—in the multiple parts he plays across the sketches—warrant special recognition for helping elevate the entertaining to the memorable.

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photos by Oomphotography

39th Annual Young Playwrights Festival
Pegasus Theatre Chicago
Chicago Dramatists, 798 N. Aberdeen
Fri at 7; Sat at 2:30 & 7
2 hours and 15 minutes (including intermission)
ends on January 24, 2026
for tickets ($15–$30), visit Pegasus Theatre

to schedule school group matinees,
educators can contact YPF@PegasusTheatreChicago.org

for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago

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The Young Playwrights 2026: (Top) Sophia Ponce, Ashley Snyder,
(bottom) Clark Tavas, Lola Zimmerman. Photo by Joe Gallagher.