For Immediate Release: November 28, 2005
Media Contact: Megan Wendell, for Philadelphia Young Playwrights, 215.242.6393

Philadelphia Theatre Company and Philadelphia Young Playwrights will continue their long-standing collaboration to present fully mounted professional productions of winning student plays submitted to Young Playwrights' 2005 Annual Playwriting Festival.

From December 2nd through 9th, Philadelphia Theatre Company and Philadelphia Young Playwrights will co-produce three plays written by high school and middle school students at Plays & Players Theater, located at 1714 Delancey Street. Evening performances are scheduled at 8pm on December 2nd and 3rd, and matinees will be held at 11am, from December 5th through 9th, with a post-show discussion with the playwrights on the 9th. Special pre-show events designed to introduce students to the theater accompany each matinee performance.

Young Playwrights received 714 script submissions to its 2005 Annual Playwriting Festival. Winners were chosen at each grade level, and plays are presented throughout the fall as staged readings, enhanced workshop productions, and as professional productions in collaboration with Philadelphia Theatre Company.

Now in its 13th year, this one-of-a-kind collaboration brings together Philadelphia's best professional actors, directors and designers with tomorrow's important new voices and offers student playwrights an extraordinary experience to develop their work and interact with the professional director, dramaturg, actors and stage crew.

Sara Garonzik, PTC Producing Artistic Director says, "PTC's ongoing commitment to developing and producing new American plays and playwrights makes our annual collaboration with Philadelphia Young Playwrights both inspirational and fun at the same time."

Young Playwrights Executive Director Glen Knapp adds "This first-class, professional platform for student voices represents something truly unique on the national stage. We are thrilled that Philadelphia Theatre Company brings its formidable resources to our enduring collaboration."

The plays being presented are:

Jealousy's Not a Game, group-authored at Harrison School
Grades 2-7
Directed by Daniel Kutner
Sportsmanship and school girl rivalries take center stage in this comedic look at "the green monster."

Good vs. Evil by Frances Hunter of J.R. Masterman High School
Written during Grade 9
Directed by Myra Bazell
A restless superhero and his evil arch-nemesis strike a deal in this comic book caper.

Snow is Falling by Gabe Bloomfield of Friends Central High School
Written during Grade 10
Directed by Peter Reynolds
A snow storm rages outside, as inside life's random nature ignites a struggle over the definition of family.

Set and costumes will be designed by Hiroshi Iwasaki with lighting and sound design by Madison Cario.

Individual tickets are available through Philadelphia Theatre Company by calling the box office at 215-985-0420 or visiting www.phillytheatreco.com. For groups sales, call Philadelphia Young Playwrights at 215-665-9226, and visit www.phillyyoungplaywrights.org for more information. General admission is $15; students & seniors $12; school groups of 10 or more $6 per ticket; and the family rate is $25 for 5 tickets.

This collaboration is made possible with sponsorship support from the William Penn Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and PECO, An Exelon Company. Additional funding is provided by the Connelly, Charlotte Cushman, Hamilton Family, and Independence Foundations.

About Philadelphia Young Playwrights: Founded in 1984, Philadelphia Young Playwrights taps the potential of youth and inspires learning through playwriting in up to 50 public and private K-12 schools each year. Young Playwrights is an intensive arts-education program that pairs a professional teaching artist with a classroom teacher. The two work together as an Artistic Team, guiding and supporting students in the process of writing a play, which concurrently fosters student learning, exploring, and succeeding.

Since 1984, approximately 60 professional playwrights have led workshops, and nearly all of Philadelphia's professional theatre companies have participated by performing, producing, or directing student works. Nearly 55,000 students have seen peers' work produced in class or by professionals. Young Playwrights' Literary Committee includes more than 60 educators, writers, parents, and former Young Playwrights students who read and critique each student script. Young Playwrights received the 2005 Barrymore Award for Excellence in Theatre Education and Community Service and is the past recipient of a 1997 Barrymore Award for Theatre Education, a 2003 George Bartol Award for Excellence in Arts Education, and a 2004 Eastern University Award for Nonprofit Excellence.

About Philadelphia Theatre Company: Philadelphia Theatre Company is Philadelphia's only non-profit professional theater dedicated exclusively to producing regional and world premieres of works by contemporary American playwrights. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director, Sara Garonzik, PTC has had ever-increasing national impact having produced over 30 world premieres of new American plays. Philadelphia Theatre Company was chosen Best Theatre Company 2003 by Philadelphia Magazine. In 2005, Philadelphia Weekly voted Philadelphia Theatre Company as the "Theater Company of the Year." Since 1995, PTC has received 99 nominations and 24 awards from Philadelphia's Barrymore Awards, most recently at least one award for every production last season: Take Me Out (Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play), Elegies (Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical and Outstanding Music Direction), The Story (Outstanding Direction of a Play), and Trumbo (Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play).

Philadelphia Theatre Company recently embarked on a groundbreaking Capital Campaign in support of building its new home on the Avenue of the Arts located at Broad and Lombard Streets. The Suzanne Roberts Theater is scheduled to open in Fall, 2007. The company has been in residence at the historic Plays & Players Theater since 1982.

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