Program
Director: Emma Walton
Education
Coordinator: Will Chandler
Program Consultant: Marilyn Koch
Teaching
Artists: John Beuscher, Annette Handley Chandler, Will Chandler, Tom Gustin, Naimy Hackett, Kate Mueth, Julie Sheehan, Emma Walton, Clarissa Wilder
The flagship
of Bay Street Theatre's Educational Outreach Initiatives is the Young
Playwrights Program. The
Program, now in its 14th year, is currently running in 8 school districts, reaching approximately 200 students annually.
The goals of
the Young Playwrights Program are:
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To promote
self-expression, creativity, confidence and self-esteem
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To affirm
the importance of individuality
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To enhance
arts, literature and theatre appreciation
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To develop
writing skills through playwriting
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To develop
language art skills
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To provide
an understanding of dramatic structure
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To reach those
students who have not been successful in the traditional educational
environment
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To introduce
different teaching techniques through the use of theatre arts
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To provide
a forum for exchange between students of diverse social, racial, cultural
and educational backgrounds
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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.
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To foster compassion, awareness and social consciousness.
The Young
Playwrights Program is a unique approach to the use of theatre in
the schools. The curriculum encompasses a highly structured 14-workshop
plan of acting and writing exercises led in the school classrooms
by a pair of 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), while the Winter months
(January – March) are devoted to the Middle School.
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
that explores such playwriting concepts as character, conflict and
message. The residency culminates in the creation of approximately
200 student-written short plays. These plays are then submitted to
an independent reading committee for a selection process administered
by the artistic directorship of Bay Street Theatre, and 6-8 plays
(one play from each participating school) are selected for presentation
on Bay Street's Mainstage.
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. For these weeks, in after-school sessions, students
build and paint scenery, design costumes, install lighting, design
and create flyers and print ads, and act in and stage-manage the plays,
all under the mentorship of the professional directors, administrators
and technicians employed by Bay Street.
The final performances
are open to the entire community, and each school is furnished with
a block of tickets for a student matinee performance so that additional
students and teachers might see the participating students' work.
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 professional performance. For high school students this trip includes a Broadway play and for middle school students we book a professional theater company
at Bay Street. 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 beautiful Camp Quinipet on Shelter Island.
The Intensive has the added dimension of removing
the students and teachers from their day-to-day world, thrusting
them into a dynamic, all-encompassing, and radically different creative
environment. The students and teachers who participate in
the Intensive work, eat, relax, and live together in a structured
curriculum/activities schedule that quickly breaks down the barriers
of race, gender, socio-economic status and peer pressure to create
a platform where enhanced learning is an expected result. The quality
of the work produced is only surpassed by the exceptional relationship students
forge with their peers during this process. This feeling of cooperation
and mutual respect creates an ideal environment for creativity.
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.
The Program is funded in part by Allstate Insurance Company, 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 Evan Frankel Foundation, The Irvin Stern Foundation - Stuart and Lynn Epstein, Suffolk County under the auspices of Jay Schneiderman, The Town of Southampton and Target Stores.
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