The PYP Alumni Council
is a volunteer initiative which encourages alums to “pay-it-
forward” to current and future generations of student playwrights through direct mentorship, individual giving, and fundraising. We aim to engage members in programming, networking and professional development opportunities. Our membership includes a diverse representation of PYP alumni at various stages in
our professional and educational journeys.

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THE LATEST

In the news: Quiara Alegría Hudes 

PYP Alum and current Board Member Quiara Alegría Hudes has written the book to a new musical. Miss You Like Hell is an adaptation of her 2009 play, 26 Miles. Quiara and the upcoming production of Miss You Like Hell were profiled in the latest issue of American Theatre. Check out the article here.

Alumni Profile: Genne murphy

"Young Playwright For Life"                                        by Manna-Symone Middlebrooks 

GENNE MURPHY was confident that she would become a professional writer even as a student at Central High School. However, what she hadn’t discovered yet was her voice as a playwright. Her first play, A Perfect Mother, was a winner in the 1999 Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival. Outside of the work she’d done in class with teaching artist Ed Shockley, this was Genne’s first experience with theatre. She fell in love with the collaborative nature of theatre and the multiple ways in which it communicates with audiences and other artists. That love for collaborative art aided her decision to study playwriting and theatre in college, at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. 

Genne Murphy

In 2005, after college, Genne came back to Philadelphia and worked her way up from Office Manager to General Program Manager at Young Playwrights. During her time on staff, Genne learned about the function of a nonprofit arts organization and how to facilitate the learning and discussions centered around student voices that are at the core of PYP. In this time, her relationship with Glen Knapp developed and he became her mentor; that lead to Genne briefly serving as a guest Executive Director in 2014. Since then Genne has continued to establish herself as an artist and nonprofit arts professional.

She has not only been accepted into Yale University’s M.F.A. playwriting program, but her play Giantess was selected as one of the pieces in the 2015 PlayPenn Conference. This highly selective conference invites only six playwrights each year to develop a piece through an in-depth series of workshops with a local director, dramaturge, designers, and actors.

After the excitement of seeing the reading of Giantess, the PYPAC caught up with Genne to talk about the PlayPenn process and how much she has grown since beginning with PYP in 1999. 

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Read more here

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Check out Giantess at playpenn

PYP Alumni Council Vice Chair Genne Murphy's play Giantess is being featured as part of Philadelphia's PlayPenn 2015 Conference. Readings will be held on 7/16 and 7/26. Get tickets here.

About Giantess: Dee is caring for her ailing grandmother, Rita, when she hears a mysterious noise in the abandoned glass factory behind her house. She discovers a lost girl her own age with amnesia – who happens to be 30 feet tall. Dee and the giantess try to figure out who she is, where she came from and their deepening connection to one another.GIANTESS is a play about complicated bodies, identities, choices, and fate.

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Alumni Council Members Host Paula Vogel Readings

Members of the PYP Alumni Council were on-hand for the Paula Vogel Mentor's Project "How I Learned To Write Festival." The PVMP pairs advanced young writers with working professional playwrights for yearlong mentorships. Alumni Council member Emily Acker helped oversee the festival and AC members Genne Murphy, Manna-Symone Middlebrooks, Faith-Jones Jackson, and Jesse Bernstein were on hand to act as mentors for the playwrights and host the mid-week readings. It was a great opportunity to showcase the kind of role the PYPAC hopes to take on as we become an at-large advocate for PYP and its programs. 

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ALUMNI PROFILE: Emily Acker


"Crossing Boundaries"                                                                                     by: Jesse Bernstein

Emily Acker

EMILY ACKER was a junior in high school and had just returned from living in Israel when she decided to write a drama about a Palestinian boy and an Israeli boy who fall in love. 

It was her first play. 

Milk and Honey was a winner in the 2008 Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival contest. Local theatre artist David Bradley was assigned as dramaturge and director for the a staged reading of the play at Temple University. He took the helm again when PYP later produced a fully-staged, professional production in 2010. 

As has happened again and again throughout its history, Philadelphia Young Playwrights launched a new voice and created a valuable and on-going collaboration. 

After high school, Emily attended Northwestern University and spent some time spent in Chicago before returning to Philadelphia to work as a professional playwright. Among other projects, she is a founding member of the playwrights collective Orbiter 3. She also wears many hats for PYP, including being the Literary Manager of the Paula Vogel Mentors Projects and the Programming Director for the PYP Alumni Council. Sometimes, she just likes "to go to [PYP's] offices and hang out. It's not technically squatting if they let you in." 

David directs at theaters throughout the Philadelphia area and has deepened his involvement with PYP. Most recently, he helped organize and oversee the 1219 Project and this summer he will once again lead a revisions lab. As he says, "I love seeing myself as an ongoing collaborator with Young Playwrights." 

David Bradley

Read more here!

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