Playwrights Theatre Accepting Submissions to the 33rd Annual New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest and Festival

Playwrights Theatre is currently accepting submissions for the 33rd Annual New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest and Festival. Plays are accepted in the following divisions: Elementary (grades 4-6), Junior High (grades 7-9), High School (grades 10-12), and Living with Disabilities (grades 6-12). Interested young playwrights must submit their plays online at www.njypf.org. The entry deadline for all divisions is 11:59pm on December 18, 2015. For complete details and submission guidelines, visit www.njypf.org, or contact Jim DeVivo, Direction of Education at 973-514-1787 X21 or njypf@ptnj.org, or visit the New Jersey Young Playwrights Blog at http://njyoungplaywrights.blogspot.com/ or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/njypf

"Writing is a means of exploring, creating, and communicating ideas about ourselves, our surroundings, and our place within the world. Writing a play affords a young person the opportunity to become master these domains through the exercising of the imagination. The plays that tend to make the greatest impact on us in the New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival are those that reflect on something within the world of the playwright and recreate it as it could be, or should be," said Jim DeVivo, Director of Education. "I encourage young playwrights to tackle the topics about which they are most curious, or most eager to resolve. We will again offer writing prompts, tips, and other sources of inspiration and instruction on the NJYPF blog and other social media outlets at Playwrights Theatre of NJ. Young playwrights should feel free to contact the Education office with any questions at any time."

There may be up to three winners in the Elementary, Junior High, and High School division and High School winners receive a New Jersey Governor's Award in Arts Education, cosponsored by the New Jersey Arts Education Partnership and the New Jersey Department of Education.

For 33 years, the New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest and Festival has been deepening the writing experience for young playwrights by providing entrants with detailed feedback from professional theatre artists about their plays. The NJYPF selects plays from hundreds of submission and presents them as staged readings with professional actors and directors. Selected playwrights meet with their director/dramaturg to discuss the play and work on possible revisions. Winning plays will be presented during the annual New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival in the Spring.

"Over the years, we have widened the scope and deepened the playwriting experience for writers selected by the committee," said John Pietrowski, Artistic Director of Playwrights Theatre. "In preparation for the Festival, writers work with professional playwrights in mentoring sessions that are designed to stretch both the plays and the playwrights. For the past two years, we have been honored to have Pia Wilson and Martyna Majok, award-winning writers from New Jersey head up the effort and it has proved invaluable to the young playwrights."

*** About Playwrights Theatre:
Founded in 1986, Playwrights Theatre is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit professional theatre and arts education institution dedicated to developing and nurturing the dramatic imagination of artists, students, and audiences. Our New Play Program creates development opportunities for professional writers through readings, workshops and productions, and invites audiences to participate in authentic feedback experiences. Our New Jersey Writers Project, Poetry Out Loud, New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest and Festival, and Creative Arts Academy programs provide a comprehensive and hands-on arts education experience to over 31,000 students, Pre-K through adult.

Writers in the New Play Program are drawn from across the country, including our affiliation with the National New Play Network, a nation-wide group of theatres dedicated to the development and production of new work. Teaching Artists in our Education Programs are professional artists working in their field in the New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. From 2003-2016, we have been designated a Major Arts Institution by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (along with only five other theatres: The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, George Street Playhouse, McCarter Theatre Center, Two River Theatre and Paper Mill Playhouse) as "an anchor institution that contributes vitally to the quality of life in New Jersey."

Funding for our activities comes from: the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the F.M. Kirby Foundation, Inc., Dramatist Guild Fund, Horizon Foundation of New Jersey, The Shubert Foundation, The Victoria Foundation, and many corporations, foundations and individuals.