Hey Teens, do you have the Will Power?

Iowa City – Teenage poets and sonnet writers are invited to grab their pens and crack open their thesaurus to write an original poem or sonnet for the Riverside Theatre Shakespeare Festival’s annual Will Power Poetry and Sonnet Contests.

Will Power, the festival’s educational outreach program, was launched in 2000 with support from Midwest One Bank. The What You Will Poetry Contest is open to students in 7-8 grades and the Will Power Sonnet Writing Contest is open to students in 9-12 grades.

Poetry contestants are to write an original poem inspired by Shakespeare and sonnet contestants should shape their inspiration into this classic poetic form.

Winners will receive tickets 2 free tickets to the special Will Power Performance of Two Gentlemen of Verona on June 23 at the Festival Stage in Iowa City’s Lower City Park, a cash prize, have their work printed in the Riverside Theatre Shakespeare Festival playbill, and displayed at the Iowa City Public Library and Midwest One Bank.

Entries are to be submitted to: Will Power Coordinator, Riverside Theatre, 213 N. Gilbert St, Iowa City, IA 52245.

Entries are due March 1, 2011.

Full contest details are available at www.riversidetheatre.org/getinvolved

At the conclusion of the contest Riverside Theatre will send out notifications to the winners of the contest and the winning entries will be listed on Riverside Theatre’s website www.riversidetheatre.org