For Immediate Release: July 6, 2006
Media Contact: Amy Watson Bish, Delaware Theatre Company, 302.594.1104 x244

On Thursday, June 8, 2006, Sanford School senior Caroline Ryon crossed the stage at Carnegie Hall to complete a journey that began over one year ago on stage at Delaware Theatre Company. Caroline's play Splintered, which won the 2005 Delaware Young Playwrights Festival's (DYPF) highest honors, was named a National Gold Key Award winner in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards competition. Sponsored by Scholastic Publications and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have celebrated 80 years as a unique presence in our nation's classrooms by identifying and documenting outstanding achievement of young artists and writers in the visual and literary arts. In addition, Caroline also won a National Silver Key Award for her non-fiction portfolio (which included copies of both Splintered and Rainy Day, her 2004 DYPF winning play).

Caroline is a three-time DYPF award recipient; her first play Rainy Day put Caroline on the platform as a DYPF finalist when she was just a sophomore. She followed this with another finalist win in 2005 with Splintered. In 2006, Caroline was a semi-finalist for her play 'Tis the Season. Inspiration for Splintered came from a quote in DTC's 2004 fall production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie: "Oh, be careful - if you breathe, it breaks." Students were asked to consider the many things in life, besides physical objects, that can be broken. Splintered shows a family divided by the death of a mother. While the son tries to forge a new relationship with his father, the father tinkers, trying to repair the family bonds embodied in a splintered rocking chair. "What most impressed us about Caroline's script," says David Stradley, produced of DYPF, "was her ability to use symbolism in a dramatically effective manner. Also, her capacity for creating empathy in her characters is awe-inspiring in a high school student."

DYPF high school finalists are engaged in the complete theatrical process - playwrights meet with a production team of directors, set, costume, lighting and sound designers. Auditions are held, sets are constructed, and countless theatre professionals are engaged to bring these students' works to life. "We check in with the playwright at every step of the way to make sure that their vision is being accomplished," says Stradley. "We never want it to become the play as we see it - it is the students' work, their vision, their stories." Caroline's honor at the Scholastic Awards is shared by all those in DTC's Department of Education and Community Engagement and many others who were involved in the process of refining her play and bringing it to the stage. She says, "The whole Festival staff was very supportive. They were never patronizing; they always treated me as an equal."

2006 marks the 17th anniversary of DYPF, and its reach continues to be impressive. The Festival, generously sponsored by ING Direct and the Gannett Foundation, saw the submission of 432 plays from 582 playwrights. "The purpose of DYPF is to give students throughout the state of Delaware a chance to be heard," says Stradley. "We want students in all three counties to know that at DTC there are people who care passionately about the stories they have to tell, and we want to share those stories with an audience in our theatre." Caroline's honor testifies to the power of DYPF to challenge students to create original and lasting works of literature. Director of Education and Community Engagement, Charles Conway, affirms that "Caroline is one of the most hard-working students that has been involved in the Festival. No one deserves the credit more than Caroline, and she deserves all of the accolades and recognition that she receives."

This fall, Caroline will start a new journey at the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Scholar where she plans to major in English with a minor in theatre.

For more information on DTC's many Education and Community Engagement programs, please visit www.delawaretheatre.org.

Delaware Theatre Company's programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency committed to promoting and supporting the arts in Delaware. The Delaware Division of the Arts provides technical and financial assistance to artists and arts programs and serves as a clearinghouse for information on the arts.

Delaware Theatre Company, Delaware's premier professional theatre, is located at 200 Water Street, on Wilmington's Riverfront. Delaware Theatre Company is a member of the League of Resident Theatres, Theatre Communications Group, the Arts Consortium of Delaware, the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce, and the Wilmington Convention & Visitors Bureau.

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