Through the Young Playwrights Project, PlayGround and Bay Area high schools partner to enable young writers to find their own expressive voice through the creation, development, and production of short plays.
With a generous planning grant from the California Arts Council Artists-in-Schools program in 2007, PlayGround began taking its unique playwright development efforts into Bay Area high schools as part of the PlayGround Young Playwrights Project. In 2009, PlayGround launched the PlayGround Young Playwrights Project Contest, inviting Bay Area high school students to submit original ten-page plays inspired by an assigned topic. Each year, PlayGround selects the best four student scripts and presents them with professional actors and directors as part of the annual Best of PlayGround Festival.
2011 Young Playwrights Project Finalists
Congratulations to the 3rd annual Young Playwrights Project finalists. Each play will receive a public staged reading and serve as a "curtain raiser" prior to select Best of PlayGround Festival performances.
Thu 5/19: Act After Curtain by Alona Bach (Berkeley High
’11), directed by Rebecca Ennals
Fri 5/20: You Wanna Refill? by Rebecca Leiner (SOTA ’11)
and Madison Worthington (SOTA ’11), directed by Katja
Rivera
Sat 5/21: Secrets in a Backstage Box by Pavla Berghen-Wolf
(Jewish Community High School of the Bay ’13), directed by Eric Fraisher
Hayes
Sun 5/22: Shakespeare in an Airport by Caety Klingman (Miramonte
High ’11), directed by Virginia Reed
To purchase tickets for the Young Playwrights Project performances and Best of PlayGround Festival or read more information on this year's finalists, click on the links below.
2010 Young Playwright Project Finalists:
Eden by Hannah Sears (Urban School '12)
Pandora by Lucas Baisch (SOTA '10)
Family Values by Nathan Forster (Berkeley High '11)
Blankie by Caety Klingman (Miramonte High '11)
2009 Young Playwright Project Finalists:
The Toyshop by Sophie Becker (Tamalpais '11)
How To Make A Clean Get Away by Tanea Lunsford (SOTA '09)
Before the Once Upon A Time by Jose Villegas and
Melanie Manzana (Academy of Arts & Sciences '11)
Bear by Reese Adams-Romagnoli (SOTA '11)