Media Advisory for Thursday, January 20th
Excellent Interview, TV and Photo Opportunity

PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia Young Playwrights alum Quiara Alegría Hudes, a Tony Award nominee and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, will bring the touring version of her award-winning play In The Heights to The Academy of Music (Broad and Locust Streets), January 18-23, 2011 as part of the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts’ Broadway series. Hudes will visit Philadelphia, her hometown, for the premiere of In the Heights and several other special Young Playwrights engagement activities. Behind-the-scenes opportunities for media include two exclusive pre-show events hosted by the playwright herself at The Academy of Music on Thursday, January 20th.

Students from Hudes’ alma mater Central High School and members of Young Playwrights’ Youth Council will get a special opportunity to meet with the playwright and take a backstage tour of In The Heights on The Academy of Music stage, beginning at 5:30 p.m. on January 20th. YouthCouncilmembers represent the student voice of the Young Playwrights program, attend board meetings, and serve as advisors to the board. A private pre-show reception with Hudes’ for Central and Youth Council students, Young Playwrights alumnus, donors and members of the board will be held from 6 – 7 p.m. The scheduled performance of In The Heights at 7:30 p.m. will follow.

A long-time supporter and active participant of the Board of Directors,QuiaraAlegría Hudesfirst began her work with Philadelphia Young Playwrights as a 10th grade student at Philadelphia’s Central High School where she was winner of the 1993 Annual Playwriting Festival. Now an award-winning professional author of plays, musicals, screenplays and other literary works, Hudes credits the organization as giving her career a start.

“The earliest things I wrote grappled with Philadelphia – its people, its struggles, its eccentricities,” said Hudes in an interview with Young Playwrights staff. “Philadelphia Young Playwrights is my theatrical home in my hometown. I carry that wherever I go. I know when I worked on my 10th grade play with PYP, I felt less alone in the world. I was working with other young writers and thinkers and intellectuals, and I can tell now, when I return to teach students at PYP, that the sense of community through writing and storytelling persists.”

As the author of In the Heights,QuiaraAlegría Hudeswas nominated for a 2008 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical and 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.Born and raised in West Philadelphia, much of her writing comes out of family stories and is influenced by her upbringing in Philadelphia, at the intersection of its many ethnic and historic communities. Her work has inspired audiences and critics alike. She has been hailed by The New York Times as “A confident and arresting voice” and “A writer of astonishing lyricism and intellectual rigor” by The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

While in Philadelphia, Hudes will also participate in a two-day Playwriting Boot Camp with Paula Vogel alongside Philadelphia Young Playwrights’ teaching artists, regional theater professionals, several PYP alumnus, and top students in the Young Playwrights program. Paula Vogel is among one of America’s most distinguished playwrights, having been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her 1997 play How I Learned to Drive, and is perhaps its most renowned teacher of playwriting. Throughout her career, Vogel has mentored many young playwrights, including Hudes who was instrumental in bringing Vogel to Philadelphia for this outstanding professional and creative development opportunity for the region’s theater artists and Young Playwrights students and educators. The boot camp is not open to the public, and will be held at the Arts Bank, Saturday, January 15 – Sunday, January 16 10am-3pm.

About In the Heights
Tuesday, January 18 – Sunday, January 23, 2011
The Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets

In The Heights, winner of four 2008 Tony Awards including BEST MUSICAL, is a sensational new show about chasing your dreams and finding your true home. With an amazing cast, incredible Tony Award-winning dancing and a thrilling Tony Award-winning score, In The Heights is an exhilarating journey into a vibrant Manhattan community—a place where the coffee is light and sweet, the windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. Experience the next chapter of the classic American story at the most joyous and exciting musical on Broadway. Find out what it takes to make a living, what it costs to have a dream, and what it means to be home… In The Heights.

For tickets, please call the Kimmel Center Box Office at 215-731-3333 or visit www.kimmelcenter.org/events/?id=3706.

Photo Credits

1. File name: Quiara peforms at Young Playwrights benefit in 2009
Pictured: Young Playwrights’ Alum and board member Quiara Alegría Hudes (forefront) and Write On! Company perform a song from Hudes’ musical for children “Barrio Grrrl!” at Philadelphia Young Playwrights annual benefit, Write On! A Celebration of Student Voices, June 3, 2009. Photo by Paola Nogueras.

2. File name: Quiara with student writers at Young Playwrights Benefit in 2009 
Pictured: Quiara Alegría Hudes with then Glenside Elementary Students Dahlia Laban; Amari Wylie; Clare Maus at Philadelphia Young Playwrights annual benefit, Write On! A Celebration of Student Voices, June 3, 2009. Photo by Paola Nogueras.

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Please call in advance to schedule an interview or camera.