Touchstone Theatre proudly presents the sixteenth year of its acclaimed Young Playwrights’ Festival. This showcase of new plays written by local elementary and middle school students will take place on May 22, 2021.
Young Playwrights’ Festival typically performs at Zoellner Arts Center’s Baker Hall; last year’s Festival was held entirely online with concert readings on Zoom, featuring performers from across the country and around the world. After an unusual 2020-21 year of the Young Playwrights’ Lab, with classes conducted almost entirely over Zoom, this year’s Festival, a “sweet 16” party for the program, will feature a private outdoor event for student playwrights, their families, their teachers, and select invited guests. The evening will include both live and pre-recorded performances of Festival plays as “mini Movies” created by the Touchstone Ensemble. General audiences can enjoy the Festival via livestream on Touchstone’s YouTube channel.
From nearly a hundred plays that were submitted from this year’s programs, Festival finalists that will be presented in their entirety are The Adventures of Detective Dog and the Case of the Missing Kids by Blaire Hartney of Lincoln Elementary; The Treasurehunters by Antonios Tatakis of Farmersville Elementary; Petunia the Penguin by Maddie Lyons of Spring Garden Elementary; A Time to Remember by Samantha Suarez of Nitschmann Middle; and Luna and Rico Go to the Moon by Emma Huertas of Freemansburg Elementary.
Festival semi-finalists will be presented as short videos, excerpts, and trailers: The Mystical Lizard by Jazanae Jackson of Fountain Hill Elementary; The 1/2 of the Alphabet by Ezerett Frack of Buchanan Elementary; The Plane Crash by Audrey Vargas of Marvine Elementary; The Petter Portal by Lena Booke Blazure of Governor Wolf Elementary; and The Jack and Jill Problem by Dilahliah Gonzalez Simonetly of Donegan Elementary. The Festival performance will also include a reading of “Letters to My February Self” written by middle school young playwrights from Casa Guadalupe Center.
On a normal year, the Festival performance is only the first half of the evening, traditionally followed by Touchstone's annual Gala, which raises money through ticket sales, live and silent auctions, and donations to support Touchstone's award-winning arts in education programming. In lieu of the Gala this year, Touchstone is simply accepting donations for support toward next year's programs. Patrons can donate directly at www.touchstone.org/donate