2016 Delaware Young Playwrights Finalists Revealed

Delaware Theatre Company is pleased to announce the six finalist plays in the 2015-2016 Delaware Young Playwrights Festival:

All for Her by Grady McPeak, Charter School of Wilmington

The Judge Outside the Courtroom by Dana Hoffman, Cab Calloway School of the Arts

Reset by Jai Latham Gallagher, William Penn High School

Scholar's Mate by Anastasia Hutnick, Padua Academy

There is Someone at the Window by Billie Rose Newby, Newby Family Home School #8266

Writer's Block by Annie Cahill, Aquinas Academy

The six playwrights of these plays were selected as finalists in the 2015-2016 Delaware Young Playwrights Festival (DYPF). The finalists will participate in a series of playwriting workshops with professional theatre artists from Delaware Theatre Company to further refine their writing and ready their works for a public showcase performance on April 7, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. on the DTC stage.

This year's DYPF began in September with a kickoff workshop for Delaware teachers and students in grades 8-12. From there, 68 plays written by 97 students representing thirteen different Delaware high schools throughout the state were submitted for the first round. Each playwright received personal feedback about his or her play from a teaching artist of the Delaware Theatre Company staff. Student playwrights had the opportunity to revise their plays. Participating schools were then invited to resubmit their top five plays for the second round, also known as the "competition round." From these entries, the six finalist plays were selected for additional development under the guidance of Delaware Theatre Company's team of theatre artists and educators.

Though not selected as finalists, four other plays and their playwrights are recognized with an honorable mention for the merits of their work. These plays areToo Far Gone by Anthony Mazewski and Connor Davis (St. Elizabeth High School), That Voice of Reason by Samantha Stewart (William Penn High School),Choices by Timothy Bradford and Megan Allen (Cab Calloway School of the Arts), and The Word by Jackie Garyantes and Carlie Hackman (St. Elizabeth High School). DTC congratulates these playwrights and invites them, along with all of this year's playwrights, to the awards recognition night and showcase of finalist plays on April 7.

Now in its fifth year of the relaunch of this acclaimed program, DYPF invites high school students to write a play based on a theme inspired by one of Delaware Theatre Company's productions. This year's theme was inspired by a quotation from The Explorers Club, written by Nell Benjamin, which will be produced and presented by DTC in April and May of 2016. The quotation served as a metaphor for the DYPF theme:

"Write a play in which a character who on the surface seems ordinary or even limited in ability demonstrates a unique or surprising talent, capability, or strength."

Through the use of a standards-based writing rubric, students created and shaped their original plays with regard to characters, conflict, dialogue, theme, and other dramatic criteria. Delaware Theatre Company celebrates the work of all 97 students in adding 68 new plays to the world of theatre through their participation in the 2015-2016 Delaware Young Playwrights Festival.

The Delaware Young Playwrights Festival is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, The Shubert Foundation, Nordstrom, the Laffey-McHugh Foundation, and Wilmington University.