A University of Lethbridge student was awarded the first-place prize in the annual 2024 Play Right Prize competition.
Kade Carter’s play “Rotting Boots” was selected at the Play Right Prize Gala last month, where a live reading of the winning play was featured.
According to Carter, it was incredible to be recognized for winning the playwriting prize. “It was my first time submitting, so it was surprising.”
“It’s a great honour. It feels like a good validation of my work as a playwright,” adds Carter.
Prior to submitting the award-winning play, Carter has done a little bit of writing for class projects, but the script came out of a playwriting class. “That was my first time getting into this work. This is my first one-act script I wrote.”
In the future, Carter would like to continue work on the “Rotting Boots” script and is in talks with a new theatre company to possibly produce the play next year.
The great thing about winning this year’s first-place prize, Carter notes, is the ability to stick around in Lethbridge a little bit longer. “And keep doing work here. Not a lot of artists, after graduation, get to do that.”
“I hope to keep writing, and if I find more inspiration, keep going with it,” adds Carter.
Carter says it is important for Lethbridge residents to keep going to live theatre and support local artists. “I think Lethbridge has the potential to do some big things with our artists and keeping graduating students around is a big part of that.”