2024 Young Playwrights Festival
Save the Date:
March 23rd, 2024
Join us for an evening of new works written by young Playwrights from your local community! As a part of our Young Playwrights Program, young playwrights are invited to submit their own short play for consideration to be produced at Town Hall Theatre by professional directors and actors. Selected finalists will have their work brought to the stage by professional actors and directors in this evening of new stories to the stage.
$15 for Adults, $10 for youth.
*Pay-What-You-Can tickets available at the door
YPF is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Community Foundation of Lafayette.
Meet the Playwrights
Amelia Soong (she/her) is a junior at Miramonte High School. Since being introduced to drama in middle school, Amelia has engaged in all different aspects of theatre, including playwriting, live theatre, short films, and theatrical lighting design for school musicals and plays. Besides a passion for acting, she also has a love for creative writing, dance, and all sorts of performing arts. You may recognize her from her short play last year, “May Lilies Do Die,” which was also presented on this stage. Amelia is excited to share this story with you, and hope you enjoy the show!
Nate Wayne is a junior at Miramonte High School and he is so excited about his first time working with Town Hall Theatre! Nate has been acting in plays and musicals for a long time and has performed with Berkeley Playhouse, Bay Area Children’s Theater, and, professionally, with American Conservatory Theater. He is extremely passionate about acting, filmmaking, singing, dancing, and writing, though in his free time he also loves running Track at school. Nate adores writing and feels so honored to have his play performed here. He looks forward to everyone seeing the show!
Lauren Wagner
Alvera Bamorya
2023-24 Young Playwrights Program
YPP is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Community Foundation of Lafayette.
The Young Playwrights Program(YPP) is an opportunity for middle and high school students to develop their voice and write new theatre pieces.
YPP meets young playwrights where they’re at! In YPP, Theatre professionals visit select local classrooms to lead workshops on playwriting and story development. Regardless of their participation in these workshops, young playwrights are invited to submit their own short play for consideration to be produced at Town Hall Theatre by professional directors and actors. Submissions are read by theatre professionals and select finalists will be chosen to have their pieces performed at the annual Young Playwrights Festival at Town Hall Theatre.
Playwright Submissions
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All submitting playwrights must live in Contra Costa or Alameda county
Middle School Category
Playwrights must be currently enrolled in 6th-8th grade or an equivalent youth schooling program
High School Category
Playwrights must be currently enrolled in high school or an equivalent youth schooling program
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Submit to: ypf@townhalltheatre.com
-Submissions must include your full name, age, and name of your school (if applicable).
-Submissions should be unpublished original plays on any subject. Adaptations or original stories welcome!
-Submissions must require 4 or fewer actors and may not exceed 10 minutes (approximately 10 pages) in length.
-Playwrights can submit up to 3 plays per playwright or playwright team.
Writer Resources
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In this Virtual Lesson in Playwriting, world renowned playwright, Lauren Gunderson, talks with another master at the short play, Steve Yockey. Listen to these two talk about the particular structures and needs of short plays, the ways they are different from other forms, and some practical tips and advice on how to write them. They’ll also talk about how to put together a successful evening of short plays that are distinct but also of a piece, which Steve is really really good at.
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Free articles to guide you through the nuts and bolts of playwriting and the theater industry.
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A space with resources on all the construction of storytelling, such as building scenes, unique characters, and themes.
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Howl Round is a free and open platform for theatremakers worldwide with a focus in amplifying progressive and disruptive ideas about theatre and facilitating connections between diverse practitioners for the past decade. This is a great resource for upcoming playwrights to see what current theatre makers are up to.
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The New Play Exchange is the worlds largest digital library of scripts by living playwrights. Join today to gain access to over 53,000 plays and see how other playwrights are building their work.
Past Winners
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It’s Not a Heist by Ella Bradley and Colin Perusse, Miramonte High School
May Lilies Do Die by Amelia Soong, Miramonte High School
Not For Myself by Hannah Johnson, Miramonte High School
The Three Surgeons by Ivan Smith and Hannah Shagan, Miramonte High School
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For the Best by Addison Gates
What Do You Want by Miriya Huie
Romeo & Juliet: The Documentary by Minda Jenab
Math Class by Alana Ruesga
Da Tempest by Heather Shinn
Therapy Session by Nadia Torpey
Roommates by Lindsey Villamor
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A Day Will Come by Chloe Starczewski
Float by Ka’Nayah Landers-Daniels
Three Worms by Phoenix Flum
Sleeping Beauty by Valentina Navarro-Marsili
Carrot’s Duck Diaries by Syrine Cherifi, Rebecca Whelan, and Erik Peterson
Ollie and Eve by Jeffrey Biggers
Ponte by Scarlett Mosher
Bring YPP to Your School
All YPP workshops are free for schools and students thanks to grant support by the Community Foundation of Lafayette.
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The Young Playwrights Program (YPP) and Festival (YPF) is an opportunity for middle and high school students to develop and produce new theatre pieces. We bring theatre artists to your classroom for a one day workshop to teach students more about the creative development of playwriting. Students will discuss ideas and practice scene writing with theatre artists and have the opportunity to submit their work for production in our Young Playwrights Festival coming up in early 2024. Submissions in the Festival are not required, but suggested.
This workshop is free for schools and students thanks to grant support by the Lafayette Community Foundation.
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In-School workshops: 50 minutes or one class period
Please let us know if you are interested in multiple workshops or longer combined class workshops.
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Writing Standards: W.9-10.3.a, W.9-10.3.b, W.9-10.3.d, W.9-10.3.e, W.11-12.3
Speaking and Listening Standards: SL.9-10.4, SL.11-12.4
Theatre Standards: Prof.TH:Cr1.b, Acc.TH:Cr1.b, Prof.TH:Cr3.a, Adv.TH:Cr3.a, Prof.TH:Pr4, Acc.TH:Pr4, Acc.TH:Re7, Prof.TH:Re8.b, Acc.TH:Cn11.2.a
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Ready to bring a YPP workshop to your students? Contact us here:
Erika March, Education Director: Erika.March@TownHallTheatre.com
Lisa Anne Morrison, YPF Producer: lilim70@comcast.net
