Kaitlyn Polka, author of Watch Me Grow, a play that follows the relationship of a mother and daughter who have been pushed apart by the hardships of their lives, has been named winner of the 2019 Student Playwriting Contest at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. 
Polka, a senior theatre major from Appleton, said in her play, the daughter is struggling with growing resentment toward her mother, who has invested all of her energy into a houseplant. Over the course of the play, the women dig into the underlying problems in their lives.
Polka’s play will have a public reading at 7:30 p.m. April 10 in the Experimental Theatre in the Fredric March Theatre Building. Admission is free and open to the public and students on all three campuses of UW Oshkosh.
Richard Kalinoski, award-winning playwright and professor of theatre at UW Oshkosh, said plays by students Jordan Brown, Aidan Ceszynski and Corey Hill, tied for second place in “this year’s very competitive array of entries.”
Kalinoski coordinates the student playwriting contest that is in its 21st year. He said more than 10 worthy plays were submitted for consideration.
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