Two Creek students, seniors Victoria Schnell and Esther Weiss were picked to be two out of 10 finalists for the Denver Center of Performing Arts’ (DCPA) contest on playwriting. High school students state-wide have written their own plays from scratch; some are competing for fun, others are doing it for their creative writing classes.  

“The student writers do get to participate in the process of casting and directing,” creative writing teacher Marissa Voss said.

Competitors submit their plays to the DCPA, and have the chance for their piece to be selected out of 107 submissions. Then an election will take place, and three winners are chosen. The remaining seven who don’t win get the opportunity to watch the winners’ plays.

Schnell’s play, Consider the Ravens, is based on a collection of darker issues, and she used music to inspire her creativity throughout the process. “This play has a few darker themes, so I listened to Scott Street by Phoebe Bridgers and The World We Knew by Frank Sinatra,” Schnell said.

Her story was based on a true turn of events in a psychological setting; where a juvenile counselor, who is trying to uncover the past of his client, finds things out about himself on the way. 

Although she didn’t have any experience in directing, she found joy in the process of making the show.

“I never directed any [plays] but I just wrote because I always thought it was fun” Schnell said.

Weiss did not have a plan or a process for her play, My Future is (Kinda) in Your Hands, and took it “page by page.” Her play was based on a twin-swap situation. “[I] tried to come up with things to keep [my play] going as I got further in,” Weiss said.