The first year of the Denver Center’s new Regional Youth Playwriting Workshop and Competition culminated June 28 with public performances of 16-year-old Laurain Park’s One-Sided Fish by Denver Center Theatre Academy students.

Park’s winning entry, selected by the staff of the Denver Center’s Education Department, is a modern take-off on The Little Mermaid that explores the thoughts and feelings of a shy girl learning about both assimilation and first love.

Park is a Korean-born rising sophomore at the Alexander Dawson School in Lafayette. Her play was directed by Steven Cole Hughes and starred SunHee Seo as Ariel and Ocie Brown as Eric. Video by David Lenk and John Moore. To read more about Park’s play and the Teen Playwriting Workshop and Competition, click here

To read more about Park’s play and the Teen Playwriting Workshop and Competition, click here.

From left: Steven Cole Hughes, Denver Center Chairman and CEO Daniel l. Ritchie, Actor SunHee Seo, Playwright Laurain Park and Denver Center Teen Playwriting Program sponsors Judi and Bob Newman. Photo by John Moore.

“One-Sided Fish” by Denver Center Theatre Academy students. Pictured: SunHee Seo as Ariel and Ocie Brown as Eric. Photo by John Moore.