Playwrights In Our Schools

The Playwrights In Our Schools Project grew out of a dinner conversation between John Dilworth Newman and Sandra Fenichel Asher after Newman had directed Asher’s ARK 5 at Highland High School in 2002.  The two of them wanted to find a way to promote the kind of new play development and production opportunity they had just completed in other schools around the country.  Newman proposed such a project to the American Alliance for Theatre and Education and applied for a grant from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America which funded the first year of the project.

In 2003, the Playwrights In Our Schools Project, run by the AATE Playwriting Network and coordinated by Newman, provided five matching grants to secondary schools across the nation to develop new works by award-winning writers of plays for young people.  In 2005, a second grant from the Children’s Theatre Foundation enabled three high school teachers to observe new play development projects in three venues (the Bonderman National Youth Playwriting Symposium in Indianapolis, NYU’s New Plays for Young Audiences series at the Provincetown Playhouse, and Pollyanna Theatre Company in Austin.  In 2007, a third grant connected eight high school playwrights with an award-winning playwright mentor who guided the young writers through three drafts of their own one-act plays.

In 2009, Newman was approached by the CEO of New Space Entertainment (now Magic Space Entertainment) and Broadway Across America: Utah to create “PIOS” residencies, like the five that happened in 2003, in Utah high schools.  Broadway Across America Utah’s Education Foundation sponsored one or two such residencies a year in Utah schools since 2009.  An additional residency, sponsored by Broadway Across America’s Hawaii affiliate and hosted by the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, was created in 2013.  The AATE project is currently talking with sponsors in other states to fund a PIOS residency in one or more of their schools and is currently seeking a national sponsor to make the program available to any secondary schools in the United States.

2003 PLAYWRIGHT RESIDENCIES (sponsored by the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America)

 

2005 TEACHER RESDIENCIES, sponsored by the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America

  • Lynda Sharpe of Middleton, WI at Pollyanna Theatre Company in Austin http://pollyannatheatrecompany.org/
  • Ellen Klein Cerling of Evansville, IN at the Bonderman National Youth Playwriting Symposium in Indianapolis
  • Holly McNeill of West Dundee, IN at NYU’s New Plays for Young Audiences series at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City

 

2007 PLAYWRIGHT MENTORS, sponsored by the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America

Ric Averill   *  Lindsay Price  *  Jose Casas  *  Elise Forier Edie

Jennifer Cameron  *  Sarah Meyers  *  Joey Madia  *  Barry Kornhauser

 

PLAYS DEVELOPED IN PIOS RESIDENCIES, 2009-2024, in alphabetical order by title

Sponsored by Broadway Across America Utah/Magic Space Entertainment

ARTICLE ON “PLAYWRIGHTS IN OUR SCHOOLS” RIC AVERILL AT DAVINCI ACADEMY IN OGDEN, 2016

This article from AATE’s Incite/Insight paints a clear picture of what a Playwrights In Our Schools residency looks like.  It depicts the development of Ric Averill’s Escape from the Labyrinth at DaVinci Academy in Ogden, UT under the direction of Adam Slee.  Utah high school teachers:  you could have this kind of experience in your own school.  Apply below for the 2015 residency, applications due December 1.

http://incite-insight.org/2014/02/03/mything-it-up/

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