Young Playwrights Festival

On Saturday I attended the Wharton Center Young Playwrights Festival and gave a short speech about what that collaboration means to the Department of Theatre. I thought it might be nice to share my speech here:

This is my seventh year as the Department of Theatre faculty advisor for the YPF Reading Committee. Each year I read all of the submitted plays, and I enjoy this process because it gives me a sense of what some very smart and creative young people are thinking about. This year our committee read 115 plays, which is around twice as many plays as we have received in the past several years. This year’s pool of submissions included plays about technology, with several meditations on how cell phones and social media present obstacles to meaningful human interaction. We also read plays about dystopian futures, with characters finding friendship or romantic connections in frightening circumstances. While some writers looked toward the future, others found inspiration in the past. Some drew on classic Hollywood cinema, while others explored medieval times. There was an uptick in horror and suspense this year. But most plays explored relationships of family and love, grief and joy, coming together and drifting apart.

The collaborative nature of theatre means it is a place where relationships are built. Today we experienced a connection between actors and audience, but all this week and for several months this year’s iteration of YPF has forged relationships among high school students, teachers, college students, and theatre professionals. The Department of Theatre is grateful to Bert Goldstein and Laurie Briseño, and to the Wharton Center for inviting our students to make these connections. We are delighted to welcome our young playwrights into this community of theatre artists.