PLAYWRITING IN SCHOOLS
We teach playwriting and theatre in grades 3-12, during and after school. Theatre professionals use a dynamic, interactive curriculum designed to support standards in English and Theatre. Lessons can be adapted to support other content areas. Programs often culminate with professional actors performing students’ scripts. Learners at all levels enjoy success. Safe behind the mask of fiction, young people explore actions and their consequences. Empathy and compassion are fostered as students gain confidence, non-violent techniques for solving problems, essential language skills, and knowledge of theatre. Programs include:

Imagine That Creative Drama, grades 3-12
Write On! Playwriting, grades 4-12
Professional Development for Teachers

PLAYWRITING CONTEST
Each year Californians under age 19 submit original scripts to the California Young Playwrights Contest. Every writer who requests feedback receives an individualized script critique. Selected writers win script readings or full professional productions in Plays by Young Writers. Distinguished artists from major theatres select festival scripts and write comments to the playwrights. With support from a dramaturg, each winning writer strengthens his or her script and participates in every step of the production process.

Download contest entry form here

STAGE PRODUCTIONS
Plays by Young Writers, our annual festival of plays by contest winners, educates young artists in professional theatre as they work alongside experienced artists and technicians. Staged at The Old Globe since 1992, the festival entertains viewers of all ages. Student matinees give hundreds of young people their first chance to “go to the theatre,” where they often meet characters grappling with conflicts much like their own, in plays praised by local critics. Nationally known dramatists whose first plays were staged in the festival include Karen Hartman, Jim Knable, Josefina López and Annie Weisman.

TOURING PRODUCTIONS
The WINS Tour (Writers in the Next Stage of their careers) brings professional theatre to schools and community sites throughout Southern California. We commission former contest winners to develop challenging plays for teenage viewers. Scripts illuminate issues of cultural identity, communication between deaf and hearing friends, and inter-generational tensions. In Jim Knable’s play The Best Mistake, Becky is surprised to learn that her clever and accomplished father can barely read. The play resonates with adults as well as youth, and introduces theatre of substance to new audiences.

SENIOR PROGRAMS
Lifestages creates grassroots theatre from the lives of older individuals. The program pairs seniors, with a lifetime of stories to tell, with actor/writers eager for material to dramatize. The writers interview the storytellers and then shape their wisdom and memories into dramatic vignettes, which are performed by theatre artists in senior residences and community venues. Storytellers and their families receive videotaped copies of the performance.