The room erupted in laughter as the actors continued to converse over the dinner table set, speaking words scripted by sophomore Talitha Jones. This year, all high school theater students at AHS participated in the Take Ten competition, where they each submitted ten minute plays to then national theater company Theater Masters. Among the hundreds of plays submitted, ten were chosen to be preformed and directed by professionals, and it just so happens that our very own sophomore Talitha Jones’ play was one of the ten chosen.

“My play is called “Who’s Paying?”. It’s a romantic comedy about a man who is put into a tough situation when his online date turns out to be very different from what he is expecting,” sophomore Talitha Jones said.

This play was one of two chosen from high school students. The other high school winner was a junior from Glenwood Springs High School, Jamie Harris. Both Jones and Harris get to watch their plays come to life when they are performed in Aspen, New York, and even Florida.

“Take Ten was performed at the Aspen High School Black Box February 2nd-4th. In addition to this, Take Ten will also be performed in New York City and Florida sometime in the next few months,” Jones said.

Jones not only gets her play performed all around the country, but as a winner of the Take Ten competition she receives special feedback from professionals in the acting world to help her further her talent.

“I don’t win a medal or trophy, I win opportunity. I get my play performed by professional actors and directed by professional New York directors. I also get feedback from a Broadway actor, Robert LuPone, and the creator of SMASH, Theresa Rebeck,” Jones said

Jones was honored that her play was chosen along with plays from students enrolled in universities such as Yale, NYU, Columbia, and Northwestern. All students who submitted recognized the chance the competition gave to them, and what made it even better was that there were no requirements except that they had to be a high school or college student. And if you were participating in the competition as a college student, you had to be enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts, MFA, program to be eligible.

The black box was packed on opening night Sunday, February 2nd, with people from all over the community excited to see ten plays from young artistic minds. But the room was especially entertained by Jones’s comedic play, with the room erupting in laughter multiple times throughout the performance.

“Her play was something that so many people could relate to, and everyone was laughing. She wrote something so that people could not only laugh at the actors, but at themselves. It was fantastic and I was happy to have gone,” audience member and fellow AHS theater student junior Luis Martinez said.

Just like every other artist, Jones had to pull inspiration for her play from somewhere, and it just so happens that inspiration came from her older sister, Naomi Jones, who was one of the professional actors participating in the Take Ten Plays and a producer for Theater Masters.

“I knew I wanted to write a comedy, because I’m better at being funny than being serious. My sister actually met her husband online, so I decided to take a situation like that and make a twist to it,” Jones said.

Jones created something that people loved, and also something that inspired her classmates at AHS. Because every student submitted a play, the reality of Jones winning makes the dream seem more real for students next year who submit plays.

“It was amazing to know that Talitha Jones had written one of the winning plays. If anything, it was just inspirational and motivating to know that someone so young could accomplish so much,” Martinez said.

Jones will make sure to submit another play next year in hopes of being chosen again, and before then enjoy watching her ideas and thoughts being brought to life on the stage.