Young Playwrights Project
2024 Young Playwrights Contest
PlayGround has announced and officially opened the submission window for their 16th annual Young Playwrights Contest, a showcase celebrating the best budding new voices for the stage. Produced in partnership with the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO) as part of a larger art-making and land acknowledgement project at Potrero Stage, the Young Playwrights Contest will feature original short plays inspired by the prompt “The Legacy of the Land We Inhabit”, a prompt also given to PlayGround’s professional writers for the November 2023 round of Monday Night PlayGround. Bay Area High School students are invited to write an original, 10-minute play that brings awareness to and activates the practice of land acknowledgement to be submitted by Monday, April 29, 2024 (Extended Deadline). Four finalists will be selected from plays submitted by high schoolers from any of the 9 Bay Area counties, to be performed at Potrero Stage on Friday, May 24, 2024 as part of the annual PlayGround Festival of New Works.
Free Playwriting Classes
In our continuing efforts towards inclusion, accessibility, and fostering new work at all stages of creation, PlayGround is offering a free Playwriting Masterclass for high school students on Saturday, March 2, 12pm- 2pm PT, in-person at the PlayGround PlaySpace (3286 Adeline St #9, Berkeley, CA 94703) and online via Zoom, as well as a limited number of complimentary in-school (or virtual) 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. Schools interested in hosting a master class either in person or virtually should contact Jim Kleinmann at jim@playground-sf.org. In-school classes will be offered until mid-April, are first-come first-served, and will directly prepare students for an April 22, 2024 submission deadline.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Through the Lenore & Howard Klein Foundation PlayGround Young Playwrights Project, PlayGround and Bay Area high schools partner to enable young writers to find their own expressive voice through the creation, development, and production of short plays. Each year, Bay Area high school students, grades 9-12, are invited to submit short plays for consideration in the Young Playwrights Contest. The top four playwrights receive professional public staged readings of their winning short works as part of the annual PlayGround Festival of New Works.
PlayGround offers Bay Area high school students free tickets to its Monday Night PlayGround series and PlayGround public programming at Potrero Stage, including the PlayGround Solo Performance Festival, PlayGround Festival of New Works, and the PlayGround Innovators Showcase. For more information or to reserve student group tickets, contact us at ypp@playground-sf.org.
PREVIOUS FINALISTS
2023 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Pleased as Peach by Arisa Sky Krueger (Ruth Asawa School of the Arts ’24)
The Rouge Shoes by Grady Fleming, Clifton Chiang, Josslyn Grover, Julia Satterley and Annika Svahn (Bentley Upper School ’25)
American Magpie by Brian Guan (Dublin High School ’24)
When One Cries Wolf by Linnani Simpson (Ruth Asawa School of the Arts ’23)
2022 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Moon Eater by Christopher John Dela Cruz (Galileo Academy of Science and Technology ’22)
Bamboo by Sky Krueger (Ruth Asawa School of the Arts ’24)
The Mitten by Emily Maremont (San Francisco University High School ’25)
The Woman Who Refused to be Beaten by Aleeza Zakai (California High School ’23)
2021 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Late by Sky Krueger (SOTA ’24)
Between Pigs and Sheep by Finn Liu (Galileo Academy of Science and Technology ’21)
How An Ice Cream Truck Can Damn You to Hell by Jane Palladino (Aragon High School ’23)
Bread and Circuses by Anna Vanderford (Hillsdale High School ’21)
2020 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Aren’t You Clever by Katherine Ioffe (Design Tech High School ’22)
American Dinner by Leela Kiyawat (Oakland School for the Arts ’21)
If Only We Were Humen by Tiffany Liu (Cupertino High School ’21)
Safe Way by Sarah Schecter (Oakland School for the Arts ’21)
2019 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Behind the Trance by Ashlee Nguyen (Galileo Academy of Science & Technology ’19)
Lizzy in the Room by Jennifer Xiang (Mission San Jose High School ’20)
Princess and the P.E.A. by Cicely Henderson (SOTA ’19)
Snip Snip! by Lucy Urbano (Oakland School for the Arts ’19)
2018 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
True Colors by Nicholas Wong (Galileo Academy of Science & Technology ’18)
Shorter Than Fiction by Trey Harris (SOTA ’18) & Oliver Paddock (SOTA ’19)
We Don’t Have Day Jobs Anymore by Lucy Urbano (Oakland School of the Arts ’19)
Highly Qualified by Penelope Gould (Oakland School of the Arts ’18)
2017 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Crash by Annais Guerroro (SOTA ’19)
Parliament by Cicely Henderson (SOTA ’19)
Assumptions by Chava Novogrodsky-Godt (SOTA ’20)
Bear All, Bear Arms by Camilla Dwyer (SOTA ’17)
2016 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Apartment Number Four by Cicely Henderson (SOTA ’19)
Coming Around by Isabel Rose Aks (SOTA ’19)
In Black and White by Camilla Dwyer (SOTA ’17)
My Name Is by Max Itsikson (SOTA ’18)
2015 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Home Front by Camilla Dwyer (SOTA ’17)
Darling on the Nickel by Rocko Bauman (Berkeley High School ’15)
Man’s Work by Neil Binnie (Miramonte High School ’17)
Different Pieces of Oppression by Rebecca Shalliker (Albany High School ’16)
2014 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Who Wants the Moon by Eliza Mantz (Tamalpais ’14)
Occupi by Jake Rosenberg (JCHS of the Bay ’14)
Walk A Night in My Moccasins by Christine Lim (SOTA ’15)
Somnambulism by Tessa King (Tamalpais ’15)
2013 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Ariadne’s Thread by Hilary Buffum (SOTA ’14)
Marriage, On the Rocks by Louise Newlin (Urban ’13)
Pitch Slap by Jake Rosenberg (JCHS of the Bay ’14)
Flowershop by Carly Van Liere (Redwood High ’14)
2012 Young Playwrights Project Finalist:
Roundabout by Ayelet Schrek (JCHS of the Bay ’13)
2011 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Act After Curtain by Alona Bach (Berkeley High ’11)
You Wanna Refill? by Rebecca Leiner (SOTA ’11) and Madison Worthington (SOTA ’11)
Secrets in a Backstage Box by Pavla Berghen-Wolf (JCHS of the Bay ’13)
Shakespeare in an Airport by Caety Klingman (Miramonte High ’11)
2010 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
Eden by Hannah Sears (Urban School ’12)
Pandora by Lucas Baisch (SOTA ’10)
Family Values by Nathan Forster (Berkeley High ’11)
Blankie by Caety Klingman (Miramonte High ’11)
2009 Young Playwrights Project Finalists:
The Toyshop by Sophie Becker (Tamalpais ’11)
How To Make A Clean Get Away by Tanea Lunsford (SOTA ’09)
Before the Once Upon A Time by Jose Villegas and Melanie Manzana (Acad. of Arts & Sciences ’11)
Bear by Reese Adams-Romagnoli (SOTA ’11)