Annie Smith and Terry Kemp rehearse “The Illusory Life of Mr. Brite,” the winning middle school play, written by Galen Halasz, of Saranac Lake. (Photo provided)

SARANAC LAKE – Pendragon Theatre is holding its annual Young Playwright Festival Saturday, April 27 at 7 p.m.

Admission to the festival is free and includes a reception/meet and greet with the winners of the 2019 playwriting contest.

Last fall, Pendragon put out the call to middle and high school students to submit original, 10 minute long, one-act plays on a subject of their choosing.

Over 40 plays were submitted and judged by a team of professional actors, directors and writers. In the high school category, first place went to Adalyne Perryman (the 2016 and 2017 winner) from Lake Placid High School for her play titled “Outside the Wind,” with the runner-up being Claire Liew, also from Lake Placid, who wrote “Ghost Finds a Computer.” The first-place middle school submission is “The Illusory Life of Mr. Brite” by Galen Halasz from Saranac Lake with runner-up going to Maxwell Schaeffer, of Plattsburgh, for the play “First Class.”

Saturday night includes full performances of the winning plays with script-in-hand readings of the runners up.

“Once again we are thrilled at the number of scripts we received and a special thank you to the teachers who made writing plays part of their classes,” said Pendragon’s Executive Artistic Director Karen Lordi- Kirkham. “We chose the winners from copies with no names of the authors or schools listed. This year we particularly had many scripts that dealt with broader political themes, concerns for the future, as well as some deeply personal ones about identity and belonging. Imagination, creativity, and a sense of the dramatic are alive and well in the Adirondack middle and high schools.”

Admission is free.

Pendragon is located at 15 Brandy Brook Ave., Saranac Lake.

For more information, call 518-891-1854.