Florida Studio Theatre Announces the 2010 Young Playwright Winners

As part of the Sarasota Festival of New Plays; UNDER SIX begins this week at Florida Studio Theatre. A collection of winning plays from students sixth grade and under will be fully staged with numerous productions over the course of six weeks. Sarasota and Manatee schools will be bussed in to see these award-winning plays. On Saturday, May 15, 2010, these plays and the selected winning plays of seventh grade and up will be performed at Florida Studio Theatre before students are honored at an award ceremony later in the day.

Play titles such as; Sandy's Surprise, Can You Find My Bubbles?, Oh La La! Jasper & Hedgy Get Married and No War Cam Tear Our Love Apart represent the creativity in the minds of the Young Playwrights, who participated in Florida Studio Theatre's award-winning WRITE A PLAY program. On festival day, 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, Tel Mond, Israel and Dunfermline, Scotland) to see the plays and receive recognition. FST received submissions from over 4,000 playwrights this year!
"This was a very successful year for the Young Playwrights Festival. 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 2010 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 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, Dr. Laura Kingsley of Fruitville Elementary School and Key Note Speaker Teresa Eyring, Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group (National organization for non-profit professional theatre), as well as dignitaries from attending countries. 

UNDER SIX features 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 winning entries from The United States, Israel, Russia and Scotland.

In speaking about the plays, Beth Duda, Director of UNDER SIX, said, "I love the variety of the plays selected for the 2010 edition of UNDER SIX. The plays run the gamut from farcical to heartwarming. Several of the plays include important lessons. Sandy's Surprise tells the tale of a grain of sand who yearns to be special. After years of patience, he evolves into a beautiful purple pearl. Sandy's mentor, Ollie the Oyster tells him, ‘It takes time to discover our purpose. Now you can encourage others to take time, and patience, to discover what is special about themselves.' No War Can Tear our Love Apart highlights the bonds of a father and daughter as the father faces deployment to war. The play, Huppletickhoo reminds us of the importance of kindness and friendship. The plays, Captain Captain, and Oh La La! Jasper and Hedgy Get Married are lighthearted and funny giving us plenty to laugh about. The selected young playwrights have written plays that surprise us, delight 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 eighteen-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, Claude A. and Blanche McCubbin Abbott Charitable Trust, Susan Dweck, Florida Winefest and Auction, Inc., Hegner Family Foundation, Hess Foundation, Esther M. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Community Foundation of Sarasota County from The Charlotte and Charles Perret and Family Fund, Publix Super Market Charities, Richard Ratner, Robert & Linda Rosenbluth, Ina Schnell, Betty Schoenbaum Fund for Florida

Studio Theatre, The School Board of Broward County, Florida, Sarasota Sister Cities Association, The Shubert Foundation, Lois Stulberg, Target., Verizon Foundation, The Community Foundation of Sarasota County from The Victoria Leopold Foundation, Fred and Ann Wurlitzer and Sally Yanowitz.
Attached is a list of this year's UNDER SIX and SEVEN UP winning plays listed by county. For a complete list of Honorable Mention winners, please visit http://www.floridastudiotheatre.org/childrens_theatre.php 

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