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ABOUT THE PAULA VOGEL MENTORS PROJECT

This program is free of charge, made possible by Independence Foundation New Theatre Works Initiative, and The Nessa Forman, David Forman, Eleanor and Solomon Forman Family Fund.

Paula Vogel is one of America’s greatest living playwrights. This summer, Philadelphia Young Playwrights begins its second year of the Paula Vogel Mentors Project, a living award honoring Paula and extending her mentorship legacy. Vogel first worked with us on a 2011 Playwriting Boot Camp that leveled the playing field for teaching artists, young playwrights and professionals.

Quiara Alegria Hudes, a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and Young Playwrights Alumna, and playwright curator for the project, says this about mentors: “Mentors I had as a teenager made a lasting impact on my life. I learned how to have a conversation and articulate my thoughts, feelings and questions…learned how to listen to those with more knowledge as they shared what they knew. I also gained a sense of self-value. Mentors provide professional role models, intellectual conversation, and college prep in a real way.”


The Paula Vogel Mentors Project

We’re proud to announce the Year Three pairings for the Paula Vogel Mentors project! 
High school fellows are paired with Professional playwrights for year long writing mentorships.
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Mentor: Jacqueline Goldfinger
Fellow: Emma Baxter
Junior - Randolph High in Randolph, NJ
"But my passion for playwriting has really grown in my first two years of high school. I’ve achieved some success (a Scholastic Gold Key; NJ Playwright’s Theatre competition winner and honorable mention; National honorable mention). I wrote and directed two plays for my school’s One Act Play Festival as a freshman, and am currently working on another for this year.  This summer, I will be studying playwriting and screenwriting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.   The feeling of the perfect line or perfect plot twist coming to fruition out of nowhere, or of watching people read and deliver your words is indescribable. The laughter of an audience (or even better, the silence) is so fulfilling."
Mentor: P. Seth Bauer
Fellow: Dallisa Duran
Junior - Bronx High School for Writing and Communication
My name is Dalissa Duran, I am 17 year old. Along with this I am apart of Epic Theatre Ensemble. Epic is how i woke up as a writer and gave me enough confidence to apply for this. I started writing since the fourth grade, it's something i see is apart of "me" but i only taken myself seriously just a few years ago. Writing isn't the only thing i find myself falling for, i am also in love with acting and the rush it gives to say something that actually has meaning. Something that can give impact to any person listening, and the same can go with my writing. A quote that i find myself repeating to myself is from Malcolm X (Of course), 
​
“I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”   

It shapes how I look at the world, and also how I react to everyday things I must deal with. 
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Mentor: Lucy Thurber
Fellow: Helen Everbach
Junior - Strath Haven High School

​Everbach, Helen
noun
 
            (1999-) US playwright, actress, social activist, high school student; full name Helen Martha Everbach
 
1.     a young woman, of a strong personality, interested in sexuality and gender and how these things play out within character relationships in her plays:
Helen wrote yet another 'slice of life' relationship-driven comedy
2.     dated a child from a suburb of Philadelphia who is less aware of its upper-middle-class white girl privilege than it should be, but is trying to become more socially conscious despite criticism of being overly politically correct:
Why must we as a society subscribe to archaic Puritan Values as it relates to sexuality, which makes up a great deal of the thread of our culture anyhow?
3. Winner of the Philadelphia Young Playwrights Playwriting Competition for her play 'The Mundane Life of Joe Schwartz', participant in the 2015 Young Playwrights Urban Retreat in NYC, acted in numerous theatrical productions in her home community and high school:
The one doing the 'posh' accent, that's Helen
 
Derivatives
            Helen Melon - noun, pet name
            Helen-ta - noun, used only by parents, reference to Pokémon ‘pony-ta’
 
Origin
            Primarily Germanic Descent, from Western Europe, some small piece American Indian (as most Americans are), originally from the Philadelphia area
Mentor: Quinn D. Eli
Fellow: Darius Purnell
Junior - Science Leadership Academy
Darius is a past winner of the Young Voices Monologue Festival for his piece Take with Food.  He is a PYP Young Council Member, and also interned with us over the last summer.  At SLA he is a member and features editor of SLA Media and Journalism Club, and he writes poems, short stories, and stage & screen plays.

"Writing is my passion. I tend to write poems, plays, screenplays, and fiction. Every poem I have written has been from the heart in response to a life experience."
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Mentor: James Ijames
Fellow: Ellery Schiller
Junior - Masterman High School
​Ellery Schiller is unfortunately a junior at JR Masterman High School and a very small person. They have previously worked with PYP in the Annual Playwriting Festival and was also a finalist in the National Young Playwriting Competition. When not writing, Ellery enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, doing portrait photography, and reading the works of Kurt Vonnegut and Donna Tartt (commented on as sounding pretentious by the friends surrounding Ellery as they write this). Ellery identifies as agender and uses they/them pronouns. Their plays often involve genderqueer characters and touch on different themes involving sexuality, gender, and identities. Ellery's most recent play is about existential depression and philosophy as told through a series of vignettes. 

January 9 Workshop Readings

Program
Audience Feedback
Each of our year three fellows has been busy working on a brand new piece.  (Or two, or three)  They have been challenged to write a 40 minute, 4 character or less play.  Each of these pieces will be given 6 hours of rehearsal and a table reading onSaturday, January 9th.  There will be 3 plays read in succession, with 10 minute breaks, at 2PM, and then the remaining plays read at 6PM.

Readings are free!


January 9, 2016
2pm
6pm


Philadelphia Young Playwrights
Independence Foundation Learning Lab
1219 Vine Street, Floor 2
​Philadelphia, PA 19107

Year 1 & 2 PVMP Fellows and Mentors

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Year 2 Fellows and Mentors
YEAR 2 Pairings 

Fellow: Sarah Prendergast
Mentor: Lucy Thurber


Fellow: Ethan Brunton
Mentor: P. Seth Bower


Fellow: Mia Weathers-Fowler
Mentor: Aaron Jafferis


Fellow: Andrew Purvis
Mentor: James Ijames


Fellow: Angela Bey
Mentor: Quiara Alegrí­a Hudes

PVMP Festival Flyer 2015.pdf
File Size: 220 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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Paula with Year 1 Fellows and Alumna Emily Acker
YEAR 1 Pairings 

Fellow: Kirstie Floyd (Central High School/Senior)
Mentor: Lucy Thurber


Fellow: Haley Gordon (Cheltenham High School/Senior)
Mentor: Christina Anderson


Fellow: Tom Gugliuzza (West Chester University/Freshman)
Mentor: Aaron Jafferis


Fellow: Emma O’Neill-Dietel (JR Masterman High School/Freshman)
Mentor: Marcus Gardley


Fellow: Emma Martin (Strath Haven High School/Senior)
Mentor: Quiara Alegrí­a Hudes

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.

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  • Programs
    • In School Programs
    • 2025 Annual Playwriting Festival
    • Community-Based Programs
  • About
    • Mission & History
    • People
    • Alumni
    • Supporters
    • Podcast
    • Press
    • Careers
    • Donate
  • Classes
    • Current Offerings
  • On Stage
    • SaturPLAY 2025
    • Play Development Series at Rutgers Camden
    • Play Development Series at Drexel
    • Play Development Series at CCP 2024
    • New Voices 2024
  • Resources
    • PYP at Home
    • Quarantine Challenge
    • For Students
    • For Educators
    • For Parents