23rd
Annual Plays by Young Writers
Range
from Gritty Realism to Farce
Who:
Playwrights Project
What:
Plays by Young
Writers, a festival of winning scripts from the
23nd
annual California
Young Playwrights Contest
When:
January 31– February 10, 2008 (See schedule below)
Media
Opening, Saturday, February 2, 7:30, Features all four full productions
Where:
The Lyceum Theatre, Horton Plaza, San Diego
Tickets:
Individual
$20
Seniors, students, military
$15
School Groups of 10 or more
$9
Other Groups of 10 or more
$12
Opening Night (includes reception)
$50
How:
Contact Playwrights Project (619) 239-8222 for
·
Weekday matinees
·
Opening Night: Saturday, Feb. 2
·
General information
Call Lyceum Theatre Box Office (619) 544-1000 for
·
Evening performances
·
Weekend matinees
Website:
www.playwrightsproject.org
San
Diego – Theatrical styles range from gritty realism
to farce in the 23nd season of Plays
by Young Writers, winning scripts from the California Young
Playwrights Contest, produced by Playwrights Project at the Lyceum Theatre,
Horton Plaza, January 31-February 10, 2008. Selected from 289 submissions by
teenagers statewide, 4 works will receive full professional productions and 3
will receive readings in this highly regarded festival of new voices. Contest
submissions were evaluated by theatre professionals who volunteered their time
and expertise. The final readers, who selected scripts for full production,
were Martin Benson, Judith Dolan, and Patti Saraniero. All contest
participants who requested feedback received individualized written critiques.
Ruth McKee supervised the evaluation process, which focused on a sense of
truth, imagination, fresh use of language, and grasp of dramatic structure.
Full
Productions
Playwright Director
Find
You in the Forest
William Alden, 18, Santa Monica
George Yé
Mister
Wade Is Dead Niv Brook,
17, Newport Coast
Liz Shipman
Hawaii
Justin Kuritzkes, 17, Beverly Hills
Christian Lebano
Step
by Step
James Monroe, 17, Escondido
Esther Emery
Find
You in the Forest is the third script by William Alden, a
sophomore at Yale College, to be staged in Plays
by Young Writers.
Unlike his earlier comedies, Under the
Hood (2004) and This Girl Is a
Bird (2005), the new script is a lyrical drama. Drawing on his
experience with his grandmother, Alden, age 18, writes about a daughter who
tries to reconnect with her mother, shrouded in dementia. Director
George Yé brings similar family experiences to the script.
Mister
Wade Is Dead, the first play written by Niv Brook, age 17,
falls, literally, at the opposite end of the stylistic spectrum. Mister
Wade is a farce about a married couple who stage an ersatz death to
get their hands on insurance money. Wade is a bumbling, but talented,
painter who can't sell his work. The playwright, a freshman at Chapman
College, has fun satirizing the art world. Liz Shipman directs.
Justin
Kuritzkes, age 17, wrote Hawaii
for the playwriting festival at the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles,
where he is a senior. Hawaii
reveals the conflicting emotions felt by Rob and Nicole, high school students
thrown together for the wedding of his mother to her father. Kuritzkes
lets his characters delve into questions facing many adolescents. Christian
Lebano directs this relevant two-hander.
Step
by Step shows life from the perspective of a foster teen.
Written by James Monroe, 17, a senior at San Pasqual Academy, the story
follows a youth so determined to find his birth mother that he considers going
AWOL from his group home. Monroe participated in three intensive residencies
at school, taught by Playwrights Project, before gaining the confidence to
enter his work in the California Young Playwrights Contest. Esther Emery
directs Step by Step.
Readings
Festival
performances will begin with readings of scripts by writers age 14 or younger,
directed by Mike Sears.
Readings
Playwright
King
of the Couch
Rory Gallagher, age
14, Carlsbad
The
Case of the Missing Pencil Tips
Devyn Krevat, age 11, San Diego
Little
Flower
Jessica Mersten, age 13, Solana Beach
Rory
Gallagher wrote his play about an outdoors cat who yearns for the comfort of
indoors, during a playwriting residency in his 8th grade English class at Calavera
Hills School. In a similar program also led by Playwrights Project,
Devyn Krevat at Solana Pacific School created her noire detective story about
a pair of scissors who solves a classroom mystery. Jessica Mersten was
inspired to write Little Flower,
about a judgmental granddaughter, after seeing her older sister perform in
last year's Plays by Young Writers.
Sponsors
for Plays by Young Writers
include the Mandell Weiss Charitable Trust, Helen K. and James S. Copley
Foundation, Target Stores, Horton Plaza Theatre Foundation. Additional support
comes from the Community Service Association (CSA) of San Diego
Unified School District; County of San Diego, Community Enhancement Program,
District 4; The Gold Diggers; Kiwanis Club of La Jolla; San Diego County
Employees’ Charitable Organization; California Arts Council; City of San
Diego Commission for Arts and Culture; and the National Endowment for the
Arts.
Plays
by Young Writers
Public
Performance Schedule
*
Saturday, Feb. 2
- (Opening Night)- All Four Productions
Presented
7:30
PM Step
by Step, Find You in the Forest,
Mister Wade Is Dead, and
Hawaii+
Friday,
Feb. 8
7:30
PM
Little Flower, Case of the Missing Pencil Tips, Mister
Wade Is Dead, Hawaii+
Saturday,
Feb. 9
2:00
PM
The Case of the Missing Pencil
Tips, Mister Wade Is Dead
Hawaii+
7:30
PM King of the Couch, Step
by Step, Find You in the Forest
Sunday,
Feb. 10
2:00
PM
King of the Couch, Little
Flower, Step by Step, Find
You in the Forest
*Opening
Night includes a performance and reception. Proceeds help support
Playwrights Project.
+Recommended
for ages 15 and older; other plays for ages 11 and older.
Reviewers
who are unable to attend the above performances should contact Playwrights
Project to attend a school performance, Jan 31-Feb. 10.
