FST Announces Winners Of Young Playwrights Festival, Celebrated 5/16

Play titles such as; You Don't Scare Me Cow, Little Red Flower, Recycle Wagon and The Last Wolf of Scotland represent the creativity in the minds of the Young Playwrights, visited by Florida Studio Theatre's award-winning WRITE A PLAY program. On Saturday, May 16, 2009, Florida Studio Theatre will celebrate the achievements of the winning playwrights with the Young Playwrights Festival Day.

Over 300 people will travel to Sarasota from as far as Miami and across the seas (Vladimir, Russia and Dunfermline, Scotland) to see the plays and receive recognition. FST received a record-breaking number of playwright submissions this year, totaling 3,384!
"This was a very successful year for the Young Playwrights Festival. We received submissions from over 5,400 playwrights. The plays written by the students were a dynamic mix, from comical farces to heart touching tales of struggle and determination," says Young Playwrights Festival coordinator Adam Ratner.

Winners of the 2009 Young Playwrights Festival, and their families, will gather at Florida Studio Theatre's downtown campus to see their plays and celebrate the honor. The playwrights will have the opportunity to see their winning plays performed in professional productions of UNDER SIX, UNDER SIX TOO and SEVEN UP. Winners will receive a special certificate and medal honoring their courage to create at an Awards Ceremony, to be held at 2:00 pm at nearby Holley Hall. Artistic Director Richard Hopkins and Associate Director Kate Alexander will preside over the ceremony, with special guests including WRITE A PLAY Educator of the Year, Mrs. Candice Seace of Gocio Elementary School, as well as dignitaries from attending countries.

UNDER SIX and UNDER SIX TOO feature the heartwarming and hilarious plays written by children ranging in age from Kindergarten to Sixth Grade sent in from all over Florida and around the world. SEVEN UP features work written by students in grades seven and higher. This year's production of SEVEN UP will feature several winning entries from Scotland, Israel, Russia and China.
In speaking about the plays, Beth Duda, Director of UNDER SIX, said, "The plays selected for the 2009 edition of UNDER SIX are entertaining, heartwarming, and wise. The plays touch very real emotional chords in everyone, not just children. The tale of a Puerto Rican Coqui frog, trying to make his way in a new environment, befriended and helped by two Big-City Rats and the story of a Little Brother who misses the closeness he used to share with his Big Sister remind us of the importance of friends and family. The Play, Little Red Flower tells the tale of a flower who is frightened of growing and changing, and the gentle Rain and Sunshine who help her to find the courage to grow. The selected young playwrights have given us a full menu of plays that entertain us, enlighten us, and most of all make us FEEL."

Kate Alexander, Director of the WRITE A PLAY Festival adds that whether humorous or serious, "we want the plays to reflect what students honestly think and feel; we do not tell them what to write- only to write from their hearts-to write authentically. We want to see the ‘child's view of the world' not what adults want them to see and say."
Each year, Florida Studio Theatre receives thousands of plays for submission to the Young Playwrights Festival, which is a part of the Sarasota Festival of New Plays, and the culmination of the year-long WRITE A PLAY program. In its sixteen-year history, the WRITE A PLAY program has reached over 1,000,000 children. The program continues to expand, thanks in part to various grants and funding received from local, state and national organizations

Florida Studio Theatre, known as "Sarasota's Contemporary Theatre," was founded in 1973 as a small touring company. Since then, it has established itself as a major force in American Theatre. FST remains firmly committed to making the arts accessible and affordable to a broad-based audience. Under Artistic Director and CEO, Richard Hopkins, FST develops theatre that speaks to our living, evolving, and dynamically changing world. As FST grows and expands, it continues to provide audiences with challenging, contemporary drama and innovative programs.

Florida Studio Theatre wishes to thank the sponsors of the WRITE A PLAY program: Martin and Barbara Arch, Bank of America Foundation, U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, Claude A. and Blanche McCubbin Abbott, Charitable Trust, Susan Dweck, Esther M. Mertz Charitable Trust, Florida Winefest and Auction, Inc., Hess Foundation, Hegner Family Foundation, Publix Super Market Charities, The Community Foundation of Sarasota County from the Betty Schoenbaum Fund for Florida Studio Theatre, The School Board of Broward County, Florida; The Shubert Foundation, Barry & Trudy Sliverstein, The Sister Cities Association , Lois Stulberg, Verizon Foundation, The Victoria Leopold Foundation, Wachovia Foundation, Fred and Ann Wurlitzer and Sally Yanowitz.

For a complete list of Honorable Mention winners, please visit http://www.floridastudiotheatre.org/childrens_theatre.php 

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