Young Playwrights' Theater

Young Playwrights' Theater (YPT) is located in Columbia Heights, Washington, DC. It is the only professional theater company in Washington, DC dedicated entirely to arts education. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org] . YPT is a member of the League of Washington Theaters and the Theatre Communications Group. Current Producing Artistic Director and CEO, David Andrew Snider, joined YPT in 2005. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/About/Staff/index_E.html]

Mission Statement

Young Playwrights’ Theater teaches students to express themselves clearly and creatively through the art of playwriting. YPT activates student learning and inspires students to understand the power of language and realize their potential as both individuals and artists. By publicly presenting and discussing student-written work, YPT promotes community dialogue and respect for young artists. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/About/index_E.html]

Guiding Principles and Beliefs

According to YPT's official website [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/About/GuidingPrinciples/index_E.html] , the company is guided by the following principles and beliefs:

Each student has a story worth telling. We believe the stories that our students have to tell are valuable and provide communities with a powerful perspective about the youth experience. The YPT process invites students to share their ideas, dreams and beliefs through the playwright’s craft.

The arts are critical to excellence in education. We believe that theater and the art of playwriting are powerful tools in developing creativity and self-expression and in fostering learning across disciplines.

The process is more important than the product. We involve students in an ongoing creative process that enhances their learning and literacy while providing them with appropriate building blocks to construct a play. While we strive for artistic excellence, we believe the effect of the YPT process is ultimately more important than the work produced.

YPT strives for high standards from all who participate in our programs. The YPT process honors and respects the value of the work of its professional artists, students and partners. YPT expects the same self-discipline and respect from students as it does from the professionals involved in the process.

We meet students where they are. By reaching out to students through organized in-school, after-school, and summer programs at neighborhood schools and community centers, YPT provides students of diverse backgrounds with a supportive environment where they can exchange ideas and express themselves freely.

We value collaborations and partnerships to leverage resources to accomplish our purpose. YPT fosters partnerships and forges strategic alliances that both advance and are consistent with our mission and brand. We hold ourselves accountable to optimally use our resources to fulfill our commitment to the community.

History

Founded by Karen Zacarías, YPT has been teaching playwriting and producing original student works in Washington, DC for over 12 years. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/Events/ProductionHistory/index_E.html] In the past 12 years YPT has: reached more than 5,000 students with free, in-depth playwriting and literacy workshops led by professional DC-area playwrights; produced over 100 plays written by DC public elementary, middle, and high school students and performed by professional actors and directors; performed for more than 45,000 people at theaters, schools, community centers, senior wellness centers, and juvenile detention centers in all 8 wards of DC as well as Maryland and Virginia; given more than 30,000 people their first theatrical experience; and employed more than 300 DC-area artists through the program’s readings, performances and workshops. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/About/History/index_E.html]

Since 2005, YPT has been awarded commissions from the White House, the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution, while establishing the company’s first-ever resident acting company and an advisory panel of nationally-recognized playwrights, including Paula Vogel, Anna Deavere Smith, Sarah Ruhl, Nilo Cruz and Charles Randolph Wright. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/About/Staff/index_E.html]

Programs

In-School Playwriting Program
The "In-School Playwriting Program" enhances student literacy, creative expression and collaboration through the art of playwriting. With 12 years of experience in the classroom, Young Playwrights’ Theater has developed this interactive series of workshops through which students learn how to craft a play while exploring improvisation, free writing, revision, rehearsal and performance. During 14 in-class workshops, students explore the mechanics of language, drama, and self-expression, culminating with each student writing his or her own short play. Professional actors and directors visit the classroom throughout the process, reading students’ plays and helping to bring their words to life. Students also have the opportunity to study published plays and attend matinee performances, after which they discuss the plays with actors and directors. The most dynamic plays are chosen by a YPT reading committee, composed of professional playwrights, directors, and actors, to be performed in the "New Play Festival", which is produced by theater professionals at a local professional theater.
Each year YPT has further developed and refined its process and several schools throughout the District now rely on YPT to provide its holistic learning process as a means of enhancing student literacy, communication, and creativity in the classroom. By emphasizing reading, writing, and revision, the "In-School Playwriting Program" improves literacy in the following target areas:

development of strong listening and speaking skills;
improvement of vocabulary, grammar, and spelling;
increased comprehension of text;
increased ability to write expressively;
increased ability to revise and edit writing.

In 2005, only 30 percent of high school students in District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) scored at the proficient level in reading on standardized tests. In response, Young Playwrights’ Theater crafted a new playwriting curriculum that addresses and integrates the new DCPS English Language Arts Standards. Expanding its long-term partnership with Bell Multicultural High School to work with the entire 11th grade and faculty on this new curriculum, YPT’s model exemplifies the philosophy emphasized in these new standards and inherent in YPT’s work: learning an interactive writing process in the classroom as a means of creative self-expression is central to successful student learning. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/Programs/InSchool/index_E.html]

New Play Festival
The "In-School Playwriting Program" culminates in YPT’s annual "New Play Festival". The "New Play Festival" gives students the opportunity to actively participate in the arts by selecting the most interesting and dynamic work written by students that year and producing a professional staged reading at a local regional theater. In 2006 the "New Play Festival" helped to open the new theater space at Bell Multicultural High School as part of a celebration that inaugurated the space with the students’ own writing. The young authors of the best work produced by the "In-School Playwriting Program" play an integral role in the development and production of their work as they polish their scripts with a dramaturge, attend rehearsals, and offer input to the actors and director who will give life to their words onstage. Seeing the final product of their writing on stage develops these young writers’ self esteem and creates positive interaction within the community. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/Programs/InSchool/index_E.html]

After-School Playwriting Program
YPT has a long history of providing after-school programming for young people. The "After-School Playwriting Program" strengthens students’ community engagement, collaboration, and conflict resolution by exploring a theatrical process as an ensemble.
Giving young people the opportunity to build on their playwriting skills while enhancing their literacy and communication with their community, the "After-school Playwriting Program" meets at a partner public school or community center. Participants work together as a theater company to examine the political, intellectual, economic, and social impact of literary and dramatic works, culminating in the collaborative creation of a play that confronts issues in the playwrights’ cultural history and community. The end of each semester culminates with a community sharing of student work for students, friends, and families. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/Programs/AfterSchool/index_E.html]

"Young Playwrights' Workshop" In Spring 2008, YPT expanded its facilities in the Josephine Butler Parks Center in Columbia Heights to include a new Young Playwrights’ Workshop, which will serve as a home for students to explore their own creativity and enhance their literacy during after-school and summer hours. Through a variety of workshops and field trips, Workshop students explore theater as a craft and a profession and learn how they can participate in professional theater throughout Washington, DC as audience members and artists.

Express Tour
The "Express Tour" shares the work of young playwrights with the greater community in order to create a dialogue that can engage, entertain and educate.
During the tour, YPT young playwrights play an integral role in the development and production of their work as they polish their scripts with a dramaturge, attend rehearsals, and offer input to the actors and director who will give life to their words onstage.
Free performances are held at many D.C. theaters including the Kennedy Center, and the tour travels to numerous community centers, senior wellness centers, schools, hospitals and juvenile detention centers throughout Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/Programs/Tour/index_E.html]

Highlights

YPT’s expanding programs and productions are attracting new national partnerships and opportunities to showcase the work of D.C.’s inner-city youth for a national audience. In 2004, YPT young playwrights at Bell Multicultural High School collaborated with YPT Founding Artistic Director Karen Zacarías to create a play, "Choices", about the Holocaust. After reading Elie Weisel’s "Night" and through pen-pal relationships with the Kfar HaNoar Mozenson school students in Hod HaSharon, Israel, the Bell students were inspired to express their own struggles with violence and loss. Students told of losing their houses to arson, and holding dying friends in their arms as a means of trying to imagine the degree of loss and sacrifice endured by those targeted during the Holocaust, as well as their resolve. "Choices" was directed by Abel Lopez and performed at Theater J in 2004. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/Events/SpecialProjects/index_E.html]

During Spring and Summer 2005 YPT collaborated with the Smithsonian Institution’s Discovery Theater and five public schools to create "Retratos: Portraits of Our World". This original, interactive play, written by D.C. public school students and YPT Founding Artistic Director Karen Zacarías, explored Latino Heritage and History while examining the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibit "2,000 Years of Latin American Portraiture". The piece was produced in September and October of 2005 by Discovery Theater, in celebration of Hispanic Heritage month, and performed for over 2,000 public school students from throughout the Greater Washington area. In Spring 2006, as an extension of the "In-School Playwriting Program", YPT collaborated for the second time with the Smithsonian Institution’s Discovery Theater. Working with students in classrooms at MacFarland Middle School, YPT created "African Roots/Latino Soul", a piece about Afro-Latino culture heritage and identity in today’s America. The finished play was written by Karen Zacarías and performed at the Smithsonian in October 2006. Most recently, YPT and Discovery Theater collaborated on "American Rice", a piece centered on the experiences of Asian American students. In collaboration with playwright Patrick Crowley, YPT created this piece through a series of workshops for production throughout May 2007. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/Events/SpecialProjects/index_E.html]

In March 2008, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the White House Historical Society produced the world premiere of "Chasing George Washington: A White House Adventure", an original play written by Karen Zacarías in collaboration with YPT students in Columbia Heights. On March 7th, 2008, "Chasing George" had a special performance in the White House’s East Room. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/About/News/index_E.html] .

External Links

1. [http://www.youngplaywrightstheater.org/ Young Playwrights' Theater]