On Thursday, May 8 at 11:30 a.m., students from West Philadelphia's Bryant Elementary School will have a unique opportunity to perform their group-authored play on the Arden Theatre Company's Arcadia Stage as part of Philadelphia Young Playwrights' 2008 Play Development Series. The students will perform Vanessa and the Bully, a winning elementary school play from the 2007 Annual Playwriting Festival, directed by Young Playwrights professional teaching artist Dwight Wilkins and Bryant teacher Oneka Milner.

The Arden Theatre is located at 40 North 2nd Street in Philadelphia. Admission is free and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Content is appropriate for elementary school audiences. A talkback with the student playwrights and performers will follow the performance. For more information, visit www.phillyyoungplaywrights.org or call (215) 665-9226.

As part of the Arden's partnership with Young Playwrights, the theatre company will lead the students in workshops to help them prepare their performance. On the morning of May 8, the Arden will present a special performance of their children's musical Go, Dog. Go! for the Bryant students who will then step on the very same stage to perform their own play. This program fully immerses the students in the experience of the theatre, from being audience members to going behind the scenes as playwrights and performers.

Go, Dog. Go! is inspired by the beloved children's book of the same name by P.D. Eastman. The Arden's production is a joyous celebration of movement, color and space; a pop-up book that comes to life filled with acrobatics, music and physical comedy. The dogs - played by six agile actors - celebrate the many joys and challenges of life and friendship.

The students' play, Vanessa and the Bully, is a light-hearted drama about morality, fairness, equality, revenge, family love and friendship. The story focuses on Vanessa and her friends who deal day after day with bullying from a fellow classmate named Mean Jack. When the once harmless bullying goes too far, Vanessa, Mean Jack, and their parents learn a lesson about fairness and respect for others.

Philadelphia Young Playwrights' 2008 Play Development Series is made possible with support from Corporate Presenting Sponsors PECO, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Media Sponsor Philadelphia City Paper. The Bryant School and Young Playwrights are participants in Arts Bridges: Building Literacy through an Integrated Collaborative Model, a Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership project made possible by a grant of federal funds to The School District of Philadelphia by the United States Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement.

About Philadelphia Young Playwrights
Founded in 1987 by Adele Magner, and led today by Executive Producing Director Glen Knapp, Philadelphia Young Playwrights is an award-winning program that taps the potential of youth and inspires learning through playwriting in up to 50 public and private K-12 schools each year. A leader in the region's educational programs for youth and built upon its primary belief that all students have something important and valuable to say, Young Playwrights has enriched the Greater Philadelphia community, touching the lives of thousands of students, teachers and parents for the past twenty years. Since 1987, approximately 60 professional playwrights have led workshops, and nearly all of Philadelphia's professional theater 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 is a past recipient of 2005 and 1997 Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre Education and Community Service, a 2003 George Bartol Award for Excellence in Arts Education, a national "Points of Light" designation, and a 2004 Eastern University Award for Nonprofit Excellence. For more information, visit PhillyYoungPlaywrights.org.

About Arden Theatre Company
Arden Theatre Company, founded in 1988 by Terrence J. Nolen, Amy Murphy and Aaron Posner, is dedicated to bringing to life the greatest stories by the greatest storytellers of all time. The company draws from any source that is inherently dramatic and theatrical - fiction, nonfiction, poetry, music and drama. The Arden presents programs for the diverse greater Philadelphia community that arouse, provoke, challenge, illuminate and inspire. For more information, visit www.ardentheatre.org.

For more information and to schedule interviews, please contact: Megan Wendell, Canary Promotion, ph: (215) 242-6393, e: megan@canarypromo.com