Plays by Young Writers January 15 - 25, 2009 The work presented in our annual festival of Plays by Young Writers springs from the imaginations of playwrights under age 19, the winners of our California Young Playwrights Contest. Scripts are evaluated in two age groups - winners age 14 or under receive readings, while the others work with Playwrights Project to stage full productions of their scripts. The older playwrights spend months on revision, guided first by writing professionals and later by questions from the artists mounting the plays. Audiences of all ages enjoy weekend and evening performances, while weekday performances are reserved for school groups. Students are inspired by the teenage writers and intrigued by characters grappling with conflicts much like their own. The 24th Season of Plays by Young Writers will be produced in association with Cygnet Theatre Company at Old Town Theatre.

California Young Playwrights Contest

A dozen scripts are currently in the hands of final judges. Winning writers will be notified by September 15, 2008. Winners will be announced to the public on November 8th at The Neurosciences Institute, as part of Lights Up! Playwrights Take the Stage

Final Judges:

Martin Benson South Coast Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Judith Dolan Designer, Dramaturg, Director Patti Saraniero Arts Education Researcher

Arthur Wagner UCSD Dept. of Theatre & Dance Founder Deborah Salzer Playwrights Project Founder Esther Emery Director, Playwright, Artist

Former Winning Playwrights

Are you wondering what our Plays by Young Writers looks like? Here's the line up from last year's play festival, produced at The Lyceum Theatre in January\February 2008.

Full Productions

Find You in the Forest
By William Alden
Age 18, Santa Monica
Directed by George Yé
Riding a bicycle going nowhere, a woman tries to reach her mother who is disappearing into dementia.

Mister Wade Is Dead
By Niv Brook
Age 17, Trabuco Canyon
Directed by Liz Shipman
A farce about a couple who wrangle for insurance money by faking a death.

Hawaii
By Justin Kuritzkes
Age 17, Beverly Hills
Direced by Christian Lebano
Is intimacy permissible between teens on the verge of becoming step-siblings?

Step by Step
By James J. Monroe
Age 17, Escondido
Directed by Esther Emery
Determined to find his birth mother, a foster teen considers going AWOL from his group home.

Readings
Directed by Mike Sears

King of the Couch
By Rory Gallagher
Age 14, Carlsbad
An outdoors cat yearns to be indoors, until he gets there

The Case of the Missing Pencil Tips
By Devyn Krevat
Age 11, San Diego
Noire detective story about a pair of scissors who solves a classroom mystery.

Little Flower
By Jessica Mersten
Age 13, San Diego
A girl who has retreated from her family finds the road back.