City Theatre Champions Emerging Playwrights
- Kathleen Ganster
- Aug 31
- 5 min read
The curtain goes up, and the play begins. Caught up in the drama, it’s easy to forget that behind the production, a cast was selected, props were built, costumes sewn, lighting determined, and many, many lines were memorized—and none of it would exist without a story. That story was created by a playwright.
The City Theatre Company takes assisting young playwrights in the Pittsburgh area very seriously. For 26 years, the theatre has sponsored its Young Playwrights Program.
“Since the program debuted in 1999, we’ve worked with over 150 playwrights, 450 local theatre artists, had 15,000 students in our audience, and have read over 6,000 one-act plays that were submitted to our contest. Quite a few of our YP alumni have gone on to pursue playwriting and other creative writing careers. The whole program is four-part: the festival in the fall, in-school residencies during the school year, the contest in March, and frequent professional development workshops for teachers,” said Katie Trupiano, Director of Education + Accessibility.
According to Trupiano, City Theatre’s mission is to provide an artistic home for the development and production of contemporary plays that engage and challenge a diverse audience. “That mission plays out in our education programs as well, and we produce new plays written by middle school and high school students,” she said.
Each March, the theatre hosts the Young Playwrights Contest, where students submit one-act plays. “We read each one individually. In 2025, we had 320 submissions. We work with a volunteer literary committee and an in-house artistic committee to evaluate and determine the winning plays. Winners move on to a full production, and every playwright who submitted to the contest receives individual feedback from our literary committee,” Trupiano said.
The winners are then brought on as professional playwrights and assigned a dramaturg—like a playwriting coach, Trupiano explained—who helps revise and prepare the scripts. “City Theatre hires a local professional production team—director, designers, actors—and the playwrights are invited to be as involved in the rehearsal process as they can be. In October, we will host a two-week festival with student matinees and public performances,” she said.
The process is an amazing opportunity for the young playwrights. Just ask 18-year-old Isabella Blick. The recent Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) graduate is one of the five 2025 winners, and her play The Train of Memory will be among those performed.
“Every year our literary teachers took us to the City Theatre’s Young Playwrights Festival, and the plays were fantastic every time. I saw multiple CAPA students’ plays be performed there, including a classmate’s—and friend’s—play. Since I have such a deep love for scriptwriting, I submitted a play every year. Even reading my work aloud as a class makes me giddy and nervous, so having so many artists put so much focus on my work to make it the best it can be sounded like a dream come true. Being in a community of artists to make cool and fun art is my favorite place to be. So of course I’m overjoyed to be working with City Theatre,” she said.
Blick plans to major in writing and film at the University of Pittsburgh this fall. “I’m very excited to see what directions the director decides to take my play in. I’m pumped to see costumes and set design selected. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to have my play professionally produced. I am very lucky to be working with the City Theatre, especially as a young person who wrote this play for an assignment at school,” Blick said.
Blick’s dramaturg is 25-year-old Spencer Byham, a playwright himself, recent Carnegie Mellon University graduate, and co-owner of New Product Company. “Starting my own company was only possible through a partnership with my friend Pria Dahiya. We met in school and share many artistic similarities, but we also differ in valuable ways. This partnership allows me to have someone to provide feedback, judge my work honestly, pick up the slack when needed, and of course vice versa,” Byham said.
“At New Product Company, our goal is to create a new product using an old, old art form. Within the company, we’re writing, directing, set designing/constructing, costume designing, working with rental spaces, marketing, providing food, sometimes chauffeuring actors—and doing many, many other things,” Byham explained. And that includes, of course, playwriting. “Pria and I are currently developing what will either be a staged reading or a full production of a new play at the end of August. Separately, I’m working on some new plays and fiction writing,” he said.
As Blick’s dramaturg, Byham provides guidance in helping her bring her story to life. And as a playwright and producer himself, he knows how important the arts are to Pittsburgh. “Especially theatre. In 2025, it’s rare for people to gather in a room and experience something together. Sure, you can be surrounded by others at a bar with a drag show or at a movie theatre, but there’s something uniquely special and ephemeral about watching a live show come together,” Byham said.
And Byham also knows the importance of what goes on behind the scenes. “I always say that I could be brought to tears by a quick change—knowing that backstage there’s an entire highly rehearsed moment none of us see, only for the actress to walk back on stage, now in a dress, like it was nothing at all… like magic,” he said.
Trupiano also explained why that magic and the young playwrights are important. “There are clear-cut reasons why arts and theatre education is important, such as increased literacy comprehension, language fluency, and revision skills. In addition, we see our students come away with greater creative and critical thinking skills, greater empathy, better social skills, and emotional regulation,” she said.
Trupiano continued, “We treat our playwrights, both the winners and the students we work with in the classroom, as humans with something to say. We provide students the new medium of playwriting to share their stories and their ideas. We don’t censor our students. We want them to know that their voices and ideas are important and valid and valuable.”
City Theatre’s other young winning playwrights for 2025 include: Tiana Ellis, 12th grade, Washington HS; Mary Joyce, 8th grade, Belle Vernon Middle School; Oliver Rent, Hayden Carr, and AJ Montenaro, all 7th graders from Keystone Oaks Middle School; and Basil Lee, 11th grade, Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12.
The Young Playwrights Performances are October 25 and 26. Tickets can be purchased at
For more information about Spencer Byham and New Product Company, visit https://www.newproductcompany.com/.
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