Founded in 1987 by Adele Magner, and led today by Executive Producing Director Glen Knapp, Philadelphia Young Playwrights is an award-winning program that taps the potential of youth and inspires learning through playwriting in more than 50 public and private K-12 schools each year. A leader in the region’s educational programs for youth for 25 years and built upon its primary belief that all students have something important and valuable to say, Young Playwrights has enriched the Greater Philadelphia community, touching the lives of thousands of students, teachers and parents for the past twenty years. Since 1987, approximately 60 professional playwrights have led workshops, and nearly all of Philadelphia’s professional theater companies have participated by performing, producing, or directing student works. More than 60,000 young people have participated directly as playwrights and audience members, seeing their work produced in class or by professionals. Young Playwrights’ Literary Committee includes more than 60 educators, writers, parents, and former Young Playwrights students who read and critique each student script.
Press Release
New Voices: Saturday Reading Series, April 9 at 11 a.m. presented by Philadelphia Young Playwrights
Staged readings of plays by local middle school students; Program to honor the legacy of founding board member Patricia del Rio
MEDIA ADVISORY
For Saturday, April 9
WHEN: Saturday, April 9 at 11 a.m. Pre-show coffee reception begins at 10 a.m.
WHERE: The Philadelphia Art Alliance
251 South 18th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
WHO: Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown; Glen Knapp, Executive Producing Director of Philadelphia Young Playwrights; Young Playwrights staff and board members; Student playwrights from The Haverford School, General George G. Meade Elementary School and more. Representatives will be available for interviews.
ADMISSION: All Saturday Reading Series events are FREE and open to the public. Content is appropriate for all ages. For additional information, contact Philadelphia Young Playwrights at (215) 665-9226 or visit www.PhillyYoungPlaywrights.org.
WHAT: Philadelphia Young Playwrights (PYP)will present a very special New Voices: Saturday Reading Series program in honor of founding board member Patricia del Rio on Saturday, April 9th at 11 a.m. at the Philadelphia Art Alliance (251 S 18th Street). The program will feature performances of two plays written by students from the General George G. Meade Elementary School and The Haverford School. Young Playwrights mourns the passing of Patricia del Rio and will annualize one reading in the organization’s ongoing Saturday Reading Series program in her memory. Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, ex officio of the Young Playwrights Board of Directors, will host the event, alongside Glen Knapp, Executive Director of Philadelphia Young Playwrights, and special guests.
The New Voices: Saturday Reading Series invites audiences of all ages to experience new worlds, imaginative stories and compelling characters through professional staged readings of winning elementary and middle school plays authored by students from across the region.
The April 9th program will feature staged readings of two plays: I Am The Best Me by Arjun Dravid, a 7th grade student at The Haverford School in Haverford (Delaware County), and Teach Me to Fold by Huidan Mei, a 7th grade student at the General George G. Meade Elementary School in North Philadelphia. I Am The Best Me tells the story of an Indian boy in his pre-teens finding out who he is. On the way, he learns many things about life and other important things. Teach Me to Fold follows Gordon, a boy who wants to learn origami from his sister, Amy. Each play is performed by undergraduate student actors in the Department of Theater at Temple University and directed by Peter Reynolds, Artistic Director of Philadelphia’s critically acclaimed Mauckingbird Theatre Company and Director of Musical Theater at Temple.
Philadelphia Young Playwrights will honor Patricia del Rio’s significant contributions to the organization during the program. del Rio became a colleague and friend of Adele Magner, who founded Philadelphia Young Playwrights in 1987, while serving as a faculty member at the Community College of Philadelphia. Magner and del Rio often worked together on creating and acting in theatrical pieces at the college. Del Rio was a founding board member of Philadelphia Young Playwrights and architect of the Literary Committee. Her eye for dramatic and literary quality and ear for the voice of students guided the final selection committee’s decisions for 23 years. In 2007, she was honored with Young Playwrights’ President’s Award in recognition of her dedication to student voices.
Patricia del Rio passed away recently following a valiant battle with cancer. Her distinguished professional career and unparalled contributions to the spirit and accomplishments of Young Playwrights were surpassed only be her devotion to her family Abel, Andrea and Craig, David, Chapo and Sonya, Ileana and Lucas, and the many people of all ages who were fortunate to have her friendship.
Saturday Reading Series presentations are part of Young Playwrights’ 2010-2011 Play Development Series. All of the plays featured in the Saturday Reading Series are winning plays from the 2010 Annual Playwriting Festival. Over 715 students ranging from kindergarten to twelfth grade in city and suburban schools submitted scripts. Winners were chosen at each grade level, and each student who submitted a play received detailed comments from theater professionals who read his or her script.
In addition to the April 9th event, Young Playwrights will present the final Saturday Reading Series program of 2011 on May 7th at the Philadelphia Art Alliance(251 S 18th Street, Philadelphia). The program will feature a reading of The Reason We Listenby Hannah Pierce-Hoffman, a student at Strath Haven Middle School.For more program information, visit www.PhillyYoungPlaywrights.org or call (215) 665-9226.
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Emaleigh Doley, emaleigh [at] canarypromo [dot] com