Needle in a Haystack

My first memorable theatre experience was in 3rd grade when a visiting opera company performed a scene called "I Hate Men" in which the main character, a female teacher, shot dead her male colleagues. However questionable the subject matter, I was hooked and began writing my own scripts. Fast forward 15 years and I was working on the nearly defunct NJ Young Playwrights Festival, providing feedback to young writers in grades 4-12.

In conducting research, the history of the field's development has fascinated me. I have written about that history in an article published in ArtsPraxis and occasionally on the blog for the Young Playwrights Map. Yet this writing is limited to a history of programming influenced by the work done within the national young playwrights competition that eventually became Young Playwrights, Inc. (YPI) founded by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and developed by the late director, Gerald Chapman. While the influence of Sondheim and Chapman's work in the field cannot be denied, there have been instances of youth creation of plays prior to the national program at YPI in 1981.

Child performers, Federal Theatre Project
Gary, Indiana

Most noted of these earlier programs is the Marilyn Bianchi Kid's Playwriting Festival at Dobama Theatre in Cleveland begun in 1979. In fact, Cleveland seems to have been an incubator of early work in theatre for young audiences through the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) and Playhouse Square. I'm hoping to get my hands on a copy of Showtime in Cleveland by John Vacha to learn more about that. I am also in search of a piece of information that I swear was in my original dissertation research, but can no longer find: evidence that one of the FTP units (Gary, Indiana perhaps) directly engaged students in writing their own scripts. The unit in Gary had children performing work, so it makes the most sense, but correspondence with a scholar who has studied the FTP in Indiana has me questioning that possibility. Learning about Cleveland's history brings my attention to that unit. I also believe there were playwriting programs for youth in Boston and/or Vermont in the 1960s that may have been precursors to the current competitions and festivals in those areas.

I will keep eyes and ears open for that needle in a haystack. Any leads or ideas are most certainly welcome.

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Who's teaching Whom?

Revisiting Gerald Chapman's excellent book, Teaching Young Playwrights (1991), to gather some inspiration as the summer playwrights complete their first drafts. In addition to finding some great revision exercises, I am also revisiting some of Chapman's salient stories about the power of writing for young people.

One such anecdote is excerpted from the book Writing: Teachers and Children at Work (1983) by Donald Graves in which Leon Tolstoy was asked by some children to write a story for them:

"He began composing while his students gathered around his desk. But instead of being awed by this great writer, the children quickly pointed out a mistake in Tolstoy's portrayal of the young thief. In his journal, Tolstoy later wrote that they were right to correct him, and he crystallized his views about this in an essay entitled 'Are We To Teach the Peasant Children to Write, or Are They To Teach Us?'" (quoted in Chapman, p. 101).