2023/24 INFORMATION
Students in Grades 8 - 12, join a community that explores storytelling and theatre-making! Writers, artists, creative minds of all kinds, you are invited to become a 2024 Resident Playwright at PYP.
As a Resident Playwright, you’ll get access to:
WHEN AND WHERE
Resident Playwrights will meet on Zoom from 4pm - 6:30pm on Thursdays from January - June. In person meetings on Jan 4, Feb 8 & 15, and June 6, with more in-person dates at the Philly Young Playwrights office to be announced.
CURRICULAR OVERVIEW
Each writer is unique, and so is each piece of writing. Coming together in a community of writers nourishes and sustains us. We'll spend as much time exploring the craft of writing as we do crafting the writing itself. We are all about the incubation process here!
Over the course of the program, each Resident Playwright will have a Mentor who will be accessible to them in between our biweekly meetings, in addition to inspiring guest speakers and of course.
The first half of the program will focus on exploring playwriting concepts rooted in theatrical storytelling, with an emphasis on character, setting, and action. The latter half of the program will focus on refining your writing by delving into feedback strategies and revision practices. This culminates in a celebration at the end of the program where you’ll have a chance to have an excerpt of your play performed by professional actors!
Resident Playwrights is a great opportunity for students who…
As a Resident Playwright, you’ll get access to:
- Bi-weekly meetings via Zoom with a supportive community of young writers and local theatre professionals, with optional opportunities to meet in person for guest workshops, mentorship meetings, or to see local performances
- A professional mentor who will support you throughout your writing process
- A Zoom webinar-capable space to host your own online rehearsals or readings
- Guest workshops, show tickets, and other opportunities to learn more about professional theatre-making in the Greater Philadelphia Area
- Digital space for a playwright profile and a portfolio on Young Playwrights’ website to share your work and media with your friends and fans, with theaters and colleges, and the world
- …and an end-of-program celebration at a Philadelphia cultural site where you’ll experience great art, great food, and an excerpt of your writing performed by professional actors!
WHEN AND WHERE
Resident Playwrights will meet on Zoom from 4pm - 6:30pm on Thursdays from January - June. In person meetings on Jan 4, Feb 8 & 15, and June 6, with more in-person dates at the Philly Young Playwrights office to be announced.
CURRICULAR OVERVIEW
Each writer is unique, and so is each piece of writing. Coming together in a community of writers nourishes and sustains us. We'll spend as much time exploring the craft of writing as we do crafting the writing itself. We are all about the incubation process here!
Over the course of the program, each Resident Playwright will have a Mentor who will be accessible to them in between our biweekly meetings, in addition to inspiring guest speakers and of course.
The first half of the program will focus on exploring playwriting concepts rooted in theatrical storytelling, with an emphasis on character, setting, and action. The latter half of the program will focus on refining your writing by delving into feedback strategies and revision practices. This culminates in a celebration at the end of the program where you’ll have a chance to have an excerpt of your play performed by professional actors!
Resident Playwrights is a great opportunity for students who…
- Enjoyed PYP’s in-school programming and want to do more
- Love storytelling (or think they might, in the right setting!)
- Want to explore their artistry in community with fellow creators and creative minds
- Love art-making (or think they might, in the right setting!)
- Have any level of writing and/or art-making experience
- Love writing (or think they might, in the right setting!)
- Want to connect with local, professional artists and educators
- Love theatre (or think they might, in the right setting!)
- Benefit from regular scheduled time to hang out, write, and talk about writing
TUITION
Students outside of the Philadelphia School District are invited to register on a sliding scale. Please complete the registration form and then submit payment. The full cost of the class is $600, but any payment amount between $50 and $600 can be selected.
Thanks to the generous support of our funders, Philadelphia School District students can register tuition-free as enrollment numbers allow. If a Philadelphia School District family chooses to make a tuition contribution, payment can be submitted here.
Deadline:
December 15th, 2023, or when registration reaches capacity.
Questions?
Please contact [email protected].
Students outside of the Philadelphia School District are invited to register on a sliding scale. Please complete the registration form and then submit payment. The full cost of the class is $600, but any payment amount between $50 and $600 can be selected.
Thanks to the generous support of our funders, Philadelphia School District students can register tuition-free as enrollment numbers allow. If a Philadelphia School District family chooses to make a tuition contribution, payment can be submitted here.
Deadline:
December 15th, 2023, or when registration reaches capacity.
Questions?
Please contact [email protected].
MEET YOUR MENTORS:
MADELINE CHARNE is a teaching artist, dramaturg, facilitator, and arts administrator with a lifelong love of storytelling. Having worked as a teaching artist for over a decade, she has worked with students aged 3-93 at theaters, schools, libraries, day programs, prisons, hospitals, and camps across the east coast. Madeline graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 2020 with an MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism and a focus on dramaturgies of disability and community based theater making. Although she loves her research and time spent in the rehearsal room, her true passion lies in teaching and she is grateful to have exercised that passion through theaters all over Philadelphia, teaching with the Wilma, the Walnut, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, the Arden, InterAct, Theater Horizon, the Lantern, and Wolf PAC. Madeline is coming to Philadelphia Young Playwrights from a position as the Director of Education and Community at the Philadelphia Film Society, where she built a program of field trips, residencies, and community screenings that served over 8000 young people each year. In addition to this work, Madeline has dramaturged productions at Swarthmore College, La Jolla Playhouse, and Roundabout Theater Company, among others, and has had her writing published in Theater Magazine.
Madeline began her career as a teaching artist with Philadelphia Young Playwrights as an apprentice in 2015. Learning from the resident teaching artists and administrators at PYP to lead from a place of compassion, teach from a place of respect, and create from a place of curiosity. Since then she has taught in over a dozen PYP classrooms and dramaturged nearly 50 student plays. PYP has been Madeline’s artistic home in Philadelphia and she has spread the values of the organization far and wide, building programming in New York City and New Haven, CT that takes a trauma informed, student driven approach to storytelling instruction.
Madeline began her career as a teaching artist with Philadelphia Young Playwrights as an apprentice in 2015. Learning from the resident teaching artists and administrators at PYP to lead from a place of compassion, teach from a place of respect, and create from a place of curiosity. Since then she has taught in over a dozen PYP classrooms and dramaturged nearly 50 student plays. PYP has been Madeline’s artistic home in Philadelphia and she has spread the values of the organization far and wide, building programming in New York City and New Haven, CT that takes a trauma informed, student driven approach to storytelling instruction.
DONOVAN HAGINS finds great joy in working with youth as they learn to cultivate their talent and creativity in the arts. He is the Resident Producer for Philadelphia Young Playwrights and is a Theatre Artist who has worked in numerous capacities of the craft. Donovan has come full circle with PYP since he was introduced to the organization as an actor in one of PYP’s selected plays Angel written by student playwright Tamika Jones in 1999’s new play festival when he was a student at Temple University. After his graduation, he worked as a classroom actor and teaching artist for PYP for two years. Since his return to PYP as the Resident Producer in 2019, he has spearheaded the full professional production of Candles written by Angelina DeMonte, the radio play production of Pandemic written by Katie Lu, and PYP's annual SaturPLAY Festivals. He has also been the co-spearhead in the annual New Voices Festivals in collaboration with Temple University and is the liaison between student playwrights (and their families) and the production teams for each PYP production.
Donovan has performed locally in productions, workshops, and new play development readings with Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, Freedom Theatre, Azuka Theatre Collective, New City Stage, The Philadelphia Artist Collective, PlayPenn, Walnut Street Theatre, and First World Theatre Ensemble. Regionally, he has performed in similar capacities with Imagination Stage, Arena Stage, African Continuum Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, and Tribute Productions. He has served as an instructor and playwright for Freedom Theatre, a teaching artist for Philadelphia Theatre Company, and an Artist-in-Residence at Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts and the IDEA Performing Arts Center in Camden, NJ. As a television/film actor, Donovan has appeared in the CBS series Hack, the second season of HBO’s The Wire, and he has appeared in several independent films. He has also worked behind the scenes with actor/director Bill Duke in his 2007 feature film Cover.
Donovan has performed locally in productions, workshops, and new play development readings with Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, Freedom Theatre, Azuka Theatre Collective, New City Stage, The Philadelphia Artist Collective, PlayPenn, Walnut Street Theatre, and First World Theatre Ensemble. Regionally, he has performed in similar capacities with Imagination Stage, Arena Stage, African Continuum Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, and Tribute Productions. He has served as an instructor and playwright for Freedom Theatre, a teaching artist for Philadelphia Theatre Company, and an Artist-in-Residence at Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts and the IDEA Performing Arts Center in Camden, NJ. As a television/film actor, Donovan has appeared in the CBS series Hack, the second season of HBO’s The Wire, and he has appeared in several independent films. He has also worked behind the scenes with actor/director Bill Duke in his 2007 feature film Cover.
NIA VARGUS has been working in writing education since her graduation from Goucher College in 2018, with a degree in English Literature and minor in Creative and Professional Writing. Nia has also loved theater since she was a child playing a munchkin in a production of The Wizard of Oz. Nia began freelancing for PYP in 2019 and was overjoyed to become a part of the PYP staff in 2022. When not at PYP Nia also does freelance projects for the National Family Reunion Institute (NFRI), and is a greeter at Winterthur Museum.
