Young Playwrights' Theater Announces 2020-21 Young Playwrights in Progress

Young Playwrights Theater has announced Savannah Miller and Adanna Paul as the 2020-21 Young Playwrights in Progress!

Over the next few months Miller and Paul will workshop original, full-length plays with YPT. They will meet virtually with YPT Artistic Director Farah Lawal Harris in workshop sessions for their scripts and present their plays publicly in two virtual readings in February and May 2021. They will complete the program in May 2021 with developed scripts that they will take with them as they continue their journey as playwrights.

Savannah Miller (she/hers) will be workshopping her original play, The House, with YPT. Savannah is a Theater major and English and Russian double minor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. While her start was in acting, Savannah is also interested in playwriting and dramaturgy. She has had two original plays produced through the Dartmouth College Department of Theater: The House (Eleanor Frost Playwriting Contest Winner, 2018) and Trivia Champion (2019). Savannah also has experience in stage management, working as an assistant stage manager on the Dartmouth College Theater Department's Cabaret (2017) and as stage manager for Dartmouth Idol with the Hopkins Center for the Arts this past winter. As a theatre artist, Savannah has worked with different theatre organizations, including the New York Theatre Workshop, the Smithsonian's Discovery Theater, the Stratford Festival, and the Virginia Theatre Association. She also writes for the student newspaper on campus, is a tour guide and undergraduate advisor, and is an active member of Alpha Xi Delta Sorority. After Dartmouth, Savannah plans to attend graduate school for playwriting and pursue a career as a writer and arts educator.

Adanna Paul (she/hers) will be workshopping her original, one-woman play, Matayanda, with YPT. Adanna is a recent graduate of Howard University, where she earned a BFA in Theatre Arts with a concentration in acting. While at Howard, Adanna was a Fulbright Program semi-finalist. She was also a Howard University Research Symposium 2018 winner for her thesis Bound to Post-Black: Examining and Redesigning Tenets of the Post-Black Art Movement (published in the March 2020 issue of Evoke: A Historical, Theoretical, and Cultural Analysis of Africana Dance and Theatre) which included her development of a one-person show. Her one-person show, Base A, was performed in The Dawn Showcase at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. Adanna's writing has also been featured in FRESHH Inc. Theatre Company's Next to Kin Black Women's One-Act Festival in honor of Octavia Butler, Howard Players' 8x10 Play Festival, and the La MaMa Umbria International 2019 Playwright readings. Most recently, Adanna performed in The Agitators (Mosaic Theater Company of DC) and served as an actor, teaching artist, and audio engineer with the National Players Tour 70.