Virgo’s play had judges at hello

St Andrew''s student Virgo would like to pursue screenwriting or film-making after graduating Year 12.

Year 10 St Andrew’s Anglican College student Virgo is showing great potential in the world of writing for theatre after being announced as a runner-up in the Queensland Theatre’s 2018 Young Playwrights’ Award.

Her play, You Had Me At Hello, was chosen out of entries from all over Queensland and has been commended for its ‘quirky, funny and endearing’ characters.

“You Had Me At Hello is a one-act play and follows the journey of three high school students struggling to deal with issues of neuro-diversity, bullying and teenage love,” Virgo said.

“I wanted to address how neuro-diverse kids and teenagers can sometimes be labelled, stereotyped or seen as different.“I would love to see it performed on stage.”

This year a shortlist of entries was presented to a panel of Queensland theatre staff and artists, from which two finalists and one award recipient were selected.

Resident dramaturg Isaac Drandic and associate director Travis Dowling described the script as “confident in the messages it wanted to send to its audience about neuro-diverse people”.

Virgo is heavily into acting and singing both at and outside of school, and would like to pursue screenwriting or film-making after graduating Year 12.