Northport High School senior Harrison LeBow and junior Ella Piscatello’s one act plays have been selected for the Young Playwright’s Festival at the John W. Engeman Theater on May 24. The festival, which will be presented by the Northport Arts Coalition in partnership with the theater, invited students to submit one act plays for consideration. Those plays selected, including Harrison and Ella’s, will be produced and performed by theater actors during the festival.
Harrison and Ella will work with the professional directors on edits and rewrites to their scripts and have a say in the overall production and creative process. According to the Northport Arts Coalition, the students will “be a part of the entire process of staging a play, from auditions to rehearsals to tech to the final performance.”
Each student expressed their excitement at being selected, as two of only four students in the Town of Huntington to be chosen. Ella’s play is about the limitations of technology and its impact on friendship, while Harrison’s centers in on a conversation between two men. Each one act play will be performed for an audience during the festival alongside two additional plays from neighboring districts. 
“It’s such an amazing experience to have the chance to be behind the scenes. Not on the stage, but to be a part of the writing process. I do theatre and love performing in shows, but it's so much fun to take part in the other side of it,” said Ella. 
Harrison didn’t previously have theater experience, but does have significant writing and English experience and hopes to become an English teacher one day. Ella plans to study English or creative writing and possibly minor in theatre.  
Tickets are free can be picked up in-person at the Engeman Theater box office.