Dan Devine ‘15 was named one of the winners of The Blank Theatre Young Playwrights Festival for his play “Sharks, Dolphins, Hurricanes.”

“Dan’s play is an extraordinary piece of writing, so on one hand I was not surprised,” Playwriting teacher and Tens by Teens director Lawrence Keller said. “But these contests can be so competitive and arbitrary, so there’s no predicting what plays judges will respond to.”

His play, which was retitled to “Inherently Ambiguous,” as requested by the theatre, will receive a professional production with a professional cast and director.

The play will be performed during the fourth and final week of the festival, from June 25 to June 28. Rehearsals will take place at The Blank’s 2nd Stage Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., and the actual performance of the play will be at The Stella Adler in Hollywood.

Devine will fly to Los Angeles to watch the production of his play.

“I was very shocked,” Devine said. “I thought the people that would win would have written plays about really serious stuff like changing the world, not just a play about kids talking.”

The play is described as “a night of debauchery [that] transforms into an existential crisis for these philosophical teenagers,” on www.theblank.com.

Keller submitted Devine’s play for the competition, along with the other plays that were accepted into this year’s Tens by Teens, which was performed in the SC Performing Arts Center from April 29 to May 1.

Three other students were semi-finalists in the competition: Annika Murrell ‘15 for her play “Walls,” Riley Carroll ‘15 for her play “To Stay” and Nick Valdivia ‘15 for his play “Because She Needs the Eggs.”

“I felt their work is also worthy of this great honor,” Keller said. “It’s always nice when you get validation from an outside source that what we view as great work is equally recognized.”

Over the years, LT has had one other student win the competition. Three years ago Brendan Blaber ‘12 won for his play “Scrapbook,” which premiered at the festival because it was too long to be performed in Tens by Teens.