MONMOUTH —  Theater at Monmouth has announced the finalists for the 2013 Write On! Student Playwriting Festival.

The festival is the final destination for the year that was filled with teacher professional development, in-school workshops, curriculum development and student-written plays. More than 35 submissions were received in this inaugural year of the theatre’s new playwriting project, funded in part by a $10,000 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.

Write On! integrates the art of playwriting into the middle and high school curriculum to enhance academic and culturally literacy, creative expression and communication skills.

The 11 plays selected for performance range from five to 30 minutes, with plots ranging from ghost to bear sightings, fighting off zombies to fighting against parents, and starting at a new school to looking for a new home.

The finalists include:

Grand Prize: “The Ghost Boy,” Aaron Lockman, grade 12.

Second place: “A Part of Me: The Glorious Past,” Emily Stevens, grade 11.

Honorable mention: “Grandma’s Boys,” Aric Belanger, grade six; “Don’t Take Candy from Babies,” Matthew Chalmers, grade six; “The Young One’s Fault,” Gavin Diou-Cass, grade seven; “The Amazing Rescue,” Ashley Harmon, grade seven; “The Likharev Incident,” Alex Real, grade eight.

Also, “A New Generation,” Jordan Sansaricq, grade eight; “Ester,” Emily Webber, grade seven; “School,” Isabell Whitten, grade seven; “The New Life,” Ariana Wiles, grade seven.

Participating students attended Maranacook Middle School, Lewiston Middle School, Lewiston High School, Bonny Eagle High School, Thornton Academy and Lisbon High School.

Plays were reviewed by a jury of professional theater artists and the finalists participated in workshops with the artists to refine and revise their plays.

All 11 plays will be presented in a staged-reading at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15, as part of the Theater at Monmouth’s summer season. Students will sit on the stage as their plays are read, emphasizing the central focus of the program, the development of new plays by young Maine writers.

Through Write On! students learn the importance of language structure, grammar and word choice as a means of communicating their own thoughts, choices and imaginations through the development of a 10-minute play (grades five-eight) or a one-act play (grades nine-12).

To help teachers integrate the program into their classroom, TAM will offer the following complimentary components: professional development workshops for teachers, artist-facilitated in-school workshops to help student writers in their development process, and unit guides to help teachers with lesson planning.

For more information on how to become involved in Write On!, as a teacher or as an aspiring young writer, call 933-2952 or visit
http://www.theateratmonmouth.org/education-school-programs.html.

The 2014 school application materials and student submission forms are available online. Student submissions must be received no later than May 1, 2014.

Tickets for the Write On! Student Playwriting Festival are $20. For reservations, contact the TAM Box Office at
933-9999 or visit  http://www.theateratmonmouth.org/,