Third place winner Achilles Friesen, first place winner Kade Carter and second place winner Brice Popielarz are honoured at the Play Right Prize Gala on March. 28. Photo by Laura Castro.
Three university students have won top billing prizes for their personal plays. Each year, the University of Lethbridge holds a Play Right Prize Competition for students to participate and showcase their original work. This year’s winners are dramatic arts students Kade Carter (first place), Brice Popielarz (second place) and Achilles Friesen (third place). Each student won $250 to $1,500 and dramaturgical support. Second place winner Popielarz says this competition is a perfect opportunity for student playwrights to get recognized for their work.
“It exposes people to playwrights in the department, which is a huge thing here. We have TheatreXtra, but that’s really the only opportunity that a playwright might get to show off their work at a sort of official capacity at the school. So, I think having that opportunity is really, really special,” they added.
The university hosted a Play Right Prize gala to honour its winners and present a public reading of the first-place script to audiences. Carter’s play, Rotting Roots, was read by fellow dramatic arts students and faculty. One of the readers who played a main role in the story, Dean Di Palma, describes the characteristics of the text and what makes the play unique.
“I believe Rotting Roots is a very strong play with its high stacks and strong themes of gender ideology, forgiveness and guilt being resembled very strongly through the spectrum of the perspectives shown through the characters,” Di Palma said.
The second-place script written by Popielarz, is titled Double D. The play follows the story of an old friend group reuniting, but at the same time uncovering dark truths from their past. Ultimately, the friends come to terms with the fact they were groomed by their much older “friend.” The play reveals how these characters react to this situation, how relationships are affected and how their true colours are revealed. Popielarz says the greatest challenge in the writing process was being able to face the dark themes of their play.
“The heaviness of the script was challenging to deal with. There were a lot of sequences that were hard to write and hard to think up and then editing them again to make sure that they were of quality. It can be a difficult place to go for a writer,” they said.
The record-breaking, third-year running winner of the Play Right Prize, Friesen earned third place in this year’s competition. Their play We are Not Suspects is a murder mystery from the perspective of individuals who are innocent yet are riddled with guilt as they begin to question themselves and their reality.
Di Palma reigns emphasis on the importance of the Play Right Prize competition and how valuable playwrights are to the theatre world.
“I think the playwriting competition is important as it highlights an often underrated part of theatre creation. Without playwrights, we wouldn’t have most of the shows we enjoy today and this event gives the perfect time to highlight these people,” he said.
The Play Right Prize competition has been running since 2008. This annual competition intends to be back next year to give more students opportunities to showcase their writing skills. For more information, check out ulethbridge.ca/finearts.
