A collection of 10-minute plays and other original material written, directed and staged by Shady Side Academy Senior School students will be presented at the sixth annual Original Works Theater Festival, held Monday, May 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Peter J. Kountz Theater of the Hillman Center for Performing Arts, located on the SSA Senior School campus, 423 Fox Chapel Road, Fox Chapel. Admission is free, although some plays may not be suitable for children under 12.

The works will be presented as seated/staged readings, and a talk-back with playwrights, actors, technicians and the audience will follow. The student works include:

• When Goodbye Begins, by senior Alexa Jochims
• Religious Restrictions, by senior Anya Prasad
• A House Divided, by senior Carter Ayers
• Untitled, by senior Aziz Yuldoshev
• Barbie's 25^th (a scene), by senior Felicia Reuter
• Pretty Boy, by senior Caldwell Holden

Senior School drama director Dana Hardy-Bingham is artistic director, junior Izzy Calihan is assistant director, senior Rylee Hickey is student technical director, sophomore Izzy Scragg is student technician, staff member Austin Davidheiser is technical director.

Nearly all of the work being presented is a culmination of material developed in Hardy-Bingham's upper-level English Playwriting elective. Through a variety of writing exercises, acting improvisations, drafting/rewriting and discussion-based workshops, the student writers developed 10-minute plays ranging from drama to comedy touching on many themes young people find relevant today.Students were invited to submit their work for consideration in March, and a panel of student and adult judges anonymously chose the best works.

"The result will be an amazing evening of original theater presented in various stages of production penned by our very own highly creative and skilled students who have dedicated the last eight weeks to this process," said Hardy-Bingham.

The Original Works Theatre Festival was born six years ago from Hardy-Bingham's interest in generating more student involvement in the theatre department."After having such a great experience with student writers on the adaptations of our fall drama productions, I was inspired to create more opportunities for students to write in the theatrical genre," she said.