PlayGround’s 2020 Young Playwrights Contest

PlayGround has announced and officially opened the submission window for their 12th annual Young Playwrights Contest, a showcase celebrating the best of budding new voices for the stage. Four finalists will be selected from plays submitted by high schoolers from any of the 9 Bay Area counties, inspired by this year’s theme “Borders, Islands, and Walls,” a relevant favorite from the Monday Night reading prompts and a continuation of PlayGround’s six-year partnership with Planet Earth Arts on the development of environmentally-inspired plays. For complete guidelines, visit https://playground-sf.org/ypp-guidelines.

In their continuing efforts towards inclusion, accessibility, and fostering new work at all stages of creation, PlayGround is offering a limited number of complimentary in-school playwriting master classes for Bay Area high schools to help students become more familiar with playwriting in the theatrical short form. Led by distinguished PlayGround alumni and staff, these classes are designed to complement existing creative writing and playwriting education within the schools, while opening up the opportunity of the Young Playwrights Project for budding/aspiring dramatists. Programs interested in hosting a master class should contact Jim Kleinmann at jim@playground-sf.org. Classes will be offered until the end of March 2020, are first-come first-served, and will directly prepare students for an April 2020 submission deadline. For schools unable to host master classes, students are also welcome to attend two complimentary Master Classes held offsite, February 1 & February 2, at the PlayGround PlaySpace in Berkeley.

Submissions for the 12th annual Young Playwrights Contest are due by 11:59pm on Monday, April 27, 2020 (EXTENDED DEADLINE). Four finalists will be announced on or before May 8. The finalists will each receive a professional staged reading of their play as part of the Best of PlayGround Festival via Zoom live stream (dates to be announced). Young Playwrights Project alumni include: Lucy Urbano (Oakland School for the Arts), Cicely Henderson (SOTA), Jake Rosenberg (JCHS), Alona Bach (Berkeley High), and Lucas Baisch (SOTA), among others.

In addition to the Contest, through the 12th Annual Howard & Lenore Klein Foundation Young Playwrights Project, PlayGround also offers free or discounted tickets based on financial accessibility for high school students in the Bay Area to attend PlayGround’s public performances, including the 2020 Solo Fest and Festival of New Works at Potrero Stage and Monday Night readings at Berkeley Rep. For more information on tickets and accessibility, schools can contact ypp@playground-sf.org.

For more information, visit https://playground-sf.org/youngplaywrights/ or call (415) 992-6677.