Lucille Lortel Theatre Announces 3rd Annual NYC Public High School Playwrighting Fellowship

The Lucille Lortel Theatre has announced the opening of its 3rd annual NYC Public High School Playwriting Fellowship. This program was created in 2019 as an opportunity for aspiring young writers citywide to get unparalleled access to professional theater artists for mentoring and production of their work. The open call for submissions runs November 2, 2021 through January 24, 2022.

Each aspiring playwright will submit an original 10-minute play that will be judged by a panel of esteemed professional playwrights and directors including. Fellows will be chosen based on dramatic structure, creativity, and individual voice. One Fellow will be chosen from each borough along with a Fellow from a District 75 and a District 79 school.

Winners will receive a two-month long fellowship with professional theater mentors that will teach them how to develop their storytelling skills, learn more about playwrighting as a career, and offer insight into how a play transitions from paper to the stage. Fellows work directly with their mentor, and then with Artistic Director Kimille Howard (Assistant Stage Director at the Metropolitan Opera, Cofounder: Black Classical Music Archive, Broadway: Ain't Too Proud (Assistant Director), NYTW 2050 Fellowship, and MTC Jonathan Alper Directing Fellowship), to learn what the role of a director is and how they collaborate with a playwright to create a theater work. Howard will direct all works. The Lucille Lortel Theatre will produce and stage the Fellows' short plays in addition to publishing the works.

The Fellowship is free to enter and is available to all NYC public high school students. Fellows and Finalists for the program will be announced in late March 2022 with performances of these works taking place in June 2022. Interested high school students can visit www.lortel.org/HSPF for more information about the Fellowship.

"During this challenging time, it's more important than ever to encourage young artists to share their voices with their community and to help them gain firsthand experience in a performing arts career," said George Forbes, Executive Director of the Lucille Lortel Theatre. "We are extremely grateful to Peter Avery and the NYC Department of Education for championing this project."

"Stories keep us socially and emotionally connected to one another even when isolated. Through the Lucille Lortel Theatre's Playwriting Fellowship, our NYC public school teens creatively process and share their individual points of view of what is happening in their worlds through original crafted plays.a??How inspiring for these diverse young artists to receivea??professional mentorship, culminating with their distinct voices brought to life by a professional team of actors and directors,"a??remarked Peter Avery, Director of Theater for the NYC Department of Education.a??