Young Playwrights Program

Program Director: Murphy Davis
Program Consultant: Marilyn Koch

LOOK FOR MORE INFORMATION IN THE NEW YEAR!!

The flagship of Bay Street Theatre's Educational Outreach Initiatives is the Young Playwrights Program, now in its 17th year, is currently running in 9 school districts throughout the East End and in New York City.

The goals of the Young Playwrights Program are:

• To promote creativity, confidence and self-expression
• To enhance arts, literature and theater appreciation
• To develop writing skills through playwriting
• To provide an understanding of dramatic structure
• To reach those students who have not been successful in the traditional educational environment
• To provide a forum for exchange between students of diverse social, racial, cultural and educational backgrounds
• To create an opportunity for dialogue and collaboration between the schools and students from the many participating school districts, from the East End of Long Island to New York City.
• The Young Playwrights Program is a unique approach to the use of theater in the schools. The curriculum encompasses a highly structured 14-workshop plan of acting and writing exercises led in the school classrooms by Bay Street Teaching Artists, followed by a period of production work at Bay Street Theatre. The High School Playwrights Program runs in the Fall (September - November). Look for more information in the New Year!

Over the course of each semester, the Bay Street Teaching Artists work in close partnership with the classroom teacher and students are led through the highly structured dramatic writing curriculum. The residency culminates in the creation of approximately 100 student-written short plays. One play is chosen from each participating school.

During the final two weeks of the program, the emphasis shifts from writing to production, and the environment changes from the school classroom to the rehearsal room, backstage and administrative offices of Bay Street Theatre, all under the mentorship of the directors, administrators and technicians employd by Bay Street.

The Young Playwrights Program culminates with a Festival of performances, one a student matinee performance for participating schools so that teachers and fellow students can see the work that has been created and an evening performance that is open to the public.

CULTURE DAY
An important component of the Young Playwrights Program is the annual Culture Day. On this day, students from all the participating schools join together to attend a Broadway production. For many students, this represents their first exposure to professional theatre.

THE INTENSIVE
The Intensive Program condenses the 7-week residency into a 5-day retreat format. Students from New York City's Foreign Language Academy of Global Studies (F.LA.G.S.), located in the Bronx, New York, join with students from participating East End Schools for five days of workshops at Bay Street Theatre, with housing accommodations at the retreat-like Camp Quinipet on Shelter Island. The students and teachers who come from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds live and work together following a structured curriculum. The body of the work produced is only surpassed by the exceptional relationships students forge with their peers during this process. This feeling of cooperation and mutual respect creates an ideal environment for creativity and social awareness. 

THE YPP ALUMNI CLUB
Once students have participated in the Young Playwrights Program, they become eligible to join the YPP Alumni Club. Being a YPP Alumni Club member provides students with discount ticket opportunities at Bay Street, plus news of upcoming events and workshops that may be of interest, as well as access to the YPP Alumni Group blog site on Facebook, where students may keep in touch with each other and with Bay Street. Click here for more information on the YPP Alumni Club.

Bay Street's Young Playwrights Program is funded in part by an anonymous donor, Eastern Suffolk B.O.C.E.S., the JenJo Foundation, Harry Chapin Foundation, The State of New York under the auspices of Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, Assemblyman Fred Thiele, The Andrew Sabin Family Foundation, The Irvin Stern Foundation - Stuart and Lynn Epstein, Suffolk County under the auspices of Jay Schneiderman, The Town of Southampton and Target Stores.