Dulce et Utile, Part 1

On Monday, May 11, I accompanied a few of the students whose plays were selected for the 2015 Madison Young Playwrights Festival to receive a proclamation from Madison Borough Mayor Robert Conley. After reading the document proclaiming April 2015 as Madison Young Playwrights month, Mayor Conley invited the students to introduce themselves and share a little about their plays. I also said a few words about the program's goals and impact:

"At the core of an effective education system are the arts. While it is easy to see art for its immediate entertainment value, we must not overlook the greater impact it has as an educational tool. As the Roman philosopher Horace believed: effective art should be both 'dulce et utile', meaning sweet and useful. Or to put it another way: entertainment and education. By recognizing these young artists tonight, we not only celebrate their achievement, but also encourage their curiosity so that they may continue to learn more about the world and about themselves, and to explore how those two interact.

"We are currently wrapping up the celebration of the 29th annual Madison Young Playwrights program with our final in-school assembly at St. Vincent Martyr School on May 27; however, three plays by Madison students will be further performed in the statewide New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival on June 1st in a production by Playwrights Theatre on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University.

"Thank you Mayor Conley and members of the Council for recognizing the creative explorations of these students. And above all, thank you to the students who have shared their imaginations with us, and the teachers, parents, and community who support them. [The students' work] cannot happen without that support. And we encourage our children to continue using their imaginations for many, many years to come.