By contributing writer Jackie Couto, ’28
In the first week of March, six Jamesville-DeWitt High School students were announced as semi-finalists for the Syracuse Stage Young Playwrights Festival. The festival honored students with outstanding works in playwriting with two seniors and four sophmores receiving a t-shirt and their plays read on stage.
Senior Lucas Chiorini said he wrote his play “!” for AP Literature with no real themes but wanted it to be funny and weird while still being readable. “It felt really good. This is the first time I wrote a play so it’s cool to be recognized for it,” Chironi says. Although he doesn’t see himself writing any other plays in the future, Chironi enjoyed writing this play. “Sky’s the limit,” Chironi says on advice for new playwrights.
Senior Alyssa Forgione also wrote her play for AP Literature. She says her play was about the presidential election that happened in November 2025 and how it affected women in politics. “I’m sick of women getting overpowered by men in politics and so I wrote my play about this,” Forgione says. The main themes in Forgione play “Earth!” are peace, love, and unity trying to coexist with each other in politics. Forgione’s claimed that the most challenging part about writing the play was the conclusion and having to end it cohesively. “When I won, I was excited and shocked because I didn’t think people would like it,” Forgione says. “Your play can have more than one topic and try to have fun.”
Sophomore Udochukwu Okereke said that her play “The Laundromat” deals with being brave enough to put yourself out in the world. Okereke says the hardest part about writing “The Laundromat” was to keep it concise and under ten pages. “I remember when I won, I was surprised because I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t think it was my best work,” Okereke says. Okereke wants to write more plays in the future if there is another opportunity. “I hope there is another time where I can write because I enjoyed the process of (play) writing,” Okereke says.
Sophomore William Houghland, who wrote “Stuck With You”, said there aren’t many themes to his play but mainly he wanted it to reflect his life. “The hardest thing was to keep myself motivated and to stick to the outline,” Hougland says. Hougland wanted to keep his play interesting but also readable and well written. “I hope new playwrights don’t lose their creativity in the writing process. Stop writing when you feel like it so you don’t remove the emotion from the writing.”
Sophomores Judah Eglash and Evan Wagner-Flynn also were semi-finalist for the Syracuse Stage Young Playwrights Festival. Both wrote their plays as part of their sophomore honors English class.
