by Stacy Raphael, Associate Director of School Programs
This year’s Vermont Young Playwrights Festival runs Tuesday-Wednesday, May 13-14 in FlynnSpace. Get more info here.
Since 1995, when playwright Dana Yeaton and Vermont Stage Company initiated the Vermont Young Playwrights Project, over 5,000 participating students have taken a stab at what is truly a challenging task—writing a 10-minute play for the stage! At the annual VYP Festival, professional actors and directors have brought over 400 of those plays to life over the years, many of them first efforts by the young playwrights. The results are sometimes funny, sometimes moving, often thought-provoking and always surprising.
For the last five years, the Flynn Center has been partnering with the Vermont Stage Company to bring professional playwrights to middle and high school classrooms for 2 or 3 full days over the course of a month or two. On the first day, students are introduced to the fundamentals of playwriting, and inspired by writing prompts to begin getting their ideas on paper. On the second (and optional third) visit(s), students read each other’s works-in-progress aloud, support and critique one another in a moderated feedback process, and refine their plays further. Teachers then select and submit three plays for Festival consideration.
A panel of theater artists read and rank these plays at the Flynn for successful application of playwriting principles, and then pass the top two along to Vermont Stage Company. VSC casts the plays with top-notch actors, and assigns directors who present the plays at the Festival at the Flynn Center in May. One play from each school is rehearsed and performed onstage, and the second play receives a public cold reading and moderated feedback session. The third place play gets an honorable mention in the Festival program.
In the last couple of years, we have expanded our partnerships to include integration into the Young Writer’s Project online platform and also moved toward higher levels of participation by working with Weston Playhouse Theatre Company to serve schools in the southern part of our state. With an eye toward inclusion and impact, we have also moved to a two-day festival in 2013 so that more schools can participate in this life-changing program.
We at the Flynn Center believe that every young person has something important to say. Through this wonderful program, we celebrate the creativity and courage of these inventive young playwrights!
