by BWW News Desk | Jan. 14, 2019
Delaware Theatre Company announces the five finalist plays and playwrights in the 2018-2019 Delaware Young Playwrights Festival!
Season 9, Episode 8 Jordyn Flaherty Charter School of Wilmington
In All Honesty, Jalyn Horhn MOT Charter High School
(A Little Bit) of the Book of Exodus, Tristen Hudson St. Elizabeth School
Senior Year Shakespeare, John Morrison St. Elizabeth School
Star Signs and Book Shops, Madelyn Thomas St. Elizabeth School
The five playwrights of these plays were selected as finalists in the 2018-2019 Delaware Young Playwrights Festival (DYPF). The finalists will participate in a series of playwriting workshops with professional theatre artists from Delaware Theatre Company to further refine their writing and ready their works for a public showcase performance on March 7, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. on the DTC stage.
This year’s DYPF began in September with a kickoff workshop for Delaware teachers and students in grades 8-12. From there, 73 plays written by 83 students representing eleven different schools from across the state were submitted for the first round. Each playwright received personal feedback about his or her play from a teaching artist of the Delaware Theatre Company staff. Student playwrights had the opportunity to revise their plays. Playwrights then resubmitted their work for the second round, also known as the “competition round.” From these entries, the five finalist plays were selected for additional development under the guidance of Delaware Theatre Company’s team of theatre artists and educators.
Though not selected as finalists, six other plays and their playwrights are recognized with an honorable mention for the merits of their work. These plays are Brain Teaser by Maureen Carroll (Ursuline Academy), Uncertainty by Skylar Hass (Smyrna High School), Phone Booth by Michael Hahn (Charter School of Wilmington), Writing the Play by Zachary Hitchens (Cab CallowaySchool of the Arts), Indecision by Ellen Schlecht (Ursuline Academy), and Illuminate by Allison Ziegler (Charter School of Wilmington). DTC congratulates these playwrights and invites them, along with all of this year’s playwrights, to the awards recognition night and showcase of finalist plays on March 7th .
Now in its eighth year of the relaunch of this acclaimed program, DYPF invites students in grades 8-12 to write a play based on a theme inspired by one of Delaware Theatre Company’s productions. This year’s theme was inspired by a quotation from Chelsea Marcantel‘s adaptation of George Bernard Shaw‘s classic play SAINT JOAN, which will be produced by DTC February 6-24, 2019. The quotation reads, “You believe this world is a stagnant thing, that it waits for you to be ready it does not.” These words served as a springboard for the DYPF theme: write a play in which a situation or circumstance propels a character into action or into a new way of thinking. Through the use of a standards-based writing rubric, students created and shaped their original plays with regard to characters, conflict, dialogue, theme, and other dramatic criteria. Delaware Theatre Company celebrates the work of all 83 students in adding 73 new plays to the world of theatre through their participation in the 2018-2019 Delaware Young Playwrights Festival.
The mission of Delaware Theatre Company’s DYPF is to provide students with an authentic audience for their creative writing and teachers with an innovative literacy program. Guided by passion and professionalism, DYPF uses educational resources, interactive workshops, personal feedback to every playwright, and public performances to engage students in the art of theatre through the act of writing a play. Both competitive and cooperative, DYPF fosters, respects, and celebrates the voices of young writers.
The Delaware Young Playwrights Festival is made possible, in part, by support from Delaware Humanities and the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on www.DelawareScene.com.
