Paul Duan '23 Receives Honorable Mention for His Play Hachiko

We are excited to announce that Paul Duan '23 has received a Honorable Mention in the 2022 Sherwood Collins Playwriting Contest for his submission of his first ever play: Hachiko! The High School Sherwood Collins Playwriting Contest was hosted by Massachusetts Educational Theatre Guild (METG.) 
 
Paul fell in love with theatre as a 9th grader at CSW. Since, he's been involved in various fall productions and spring musicals. His favorite part about theatre is the sense of community, all the way down to the philosophy of theatre – it brings people together. "We play together, we talk to each other, and we make a grand piece of art together. All of these are the reasons why I love theatre," says Paul. 


Hachiko is based on a true story and takes place around 1920's to 1930's in Japan, Tokyo. It is about the tale of an akita dog named Hachi, who waits for his master, Ueno, to return. "I had written this play from the perspective of a dog, and naturally, a dog can't really "understand" human language. So a special feature was that I want the actors who play human roles to speak Japanese and Korean on stage with no translation, but if the audience does understand Japanese, they could understand another layer of the plot," says Paul. He found inspiration for this story from a song called "Hachi the faithful Dog". 
 
This award marks a milestone in his journey as a writer. Paul loved every moment spent writing the script and learned a lot through the process. If you'd like to read Paul's script, click here! Congratulations Paul!

The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.