Young Playwrights at Middle School continue winning streak with award-winning play
For the third consecutive school year, a team of Keystone Oaks Middle School students have been selected as winners in Pittsburgh City Theatre’s annual Young Playwrights Contest! The play, “Bolts and Apologies,” written by Oliver Rent, Hayden Carr, and AJ Montenaro during the 2024–2025 school year, was professionally produced as part of this year’s Young Playwrights Festival.
“Bolts and Apologies” tells the story of Trigger 3.0, a grumpy AI from Cy-York City who thinks humans are obsolete—until a mysterious portal sends him spiraling 100 years into the past. Lost in 2025 New York, Trigger stumbles through fast food joints, war memorials, and shocking truths about the people he once mocked. With the help of a surfer dude, a factory tour, and a few humbling revelations, Trigger begins to question everything he thought he knew about humanity—and himself.
Oliver, Hayden, and AJ collaborated on the play last school year as students in Ms. Kelly Connolly’s 7th-grade ELA class. They also worked with a City Theatre teaching artist to write the one-act play. In addition to writing the play, the students had the opportunity to work with City Theatre to watch their script come to life on stage.
Their submission was selected from more than 400 plays written by students throughout western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia.