Young Playwrights Take A Bow

Five courageous, funny and poignant short plays — written by and starring students from Pierson High School, Bridgehampton School, and the YAWP Summer Workshops — will be presented at Stony Brook Southampton’s Avram Theater on Saturday, December 15, at 7 PM as the culminating event of the 2018 Young Artists and Writers Project High School Playwriting program.

The festival represents the collaboration between student playwrights and actors who have been mentored by theater and writing professionals affiliated with Stony Brook Southampton’s MFA in Creative Writing and Literature. Professional directors stage the plays, which encompass an array of genres — from comedies to dramas — with subject matter drawn from the students’ own lives.

The Young Artist and Writers Project is led by executive director Emma Walton Hamilton and program director Will Chandler. Hamilton is a bestselling children’s book author, editor, and arts educator and serves as director of the Southampton Children’s Literature Fellows Program.  A co-founder of Bay Street Theater, she was its co-artistic director and subsequently director of education and programming for young audiences for 17 years.

Chandler, a screenwriter, also served as education director and as a teaching artist for Bay Street Theater. He has written a number of screenplays for clients ranging from Sony Pictures to actor Russell Crowe and has been a story analyst/script doctor for ABC, CBS, NBC, Viacom and HBO, among others.

The Avram Theater is in the Fine Arts Building on the campus of Stony Brook Southampton, 39 Tuckahoe Road, Southampton. Tickets for the performance are free. For reservations and more information, contact william.chandler@stonybrook.edu.

Compiled by Stephen J. Kotz
sjkotz@indyeastend.com