Selecting finalists

UPDATED March 23rd -

We have now begun to prepare to move the Junior HS division of the NJYPF into the final round. Playwrights whose scripts have advanced to this level will be notified by email late tonight. Elementary playwrights will be notified late next week. We should have all of the festival scripts selected by the end of April and will make a formal announcement of the plays to be produced at that time. In the meantime, we will keep reading and keep you posted.

Contest Judging Underway for 2017

It has been two weeks since the extended submission deadline for the 2017 New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival and I am happy to report that the first round is well underway! We had a remarkable number of submissions this year with an increase from 2016.

Our new critique forms are speeding up the process and at least 1/3 of the total submissions have already been judged in the first round. The second round of readings will take us through the end of February, but I should be able to contact the finalists in the High School division (grades 10-12) by the end of that month. Junior HS and Elementary judging will take a bit longer, but those finalists should hear from me in March. To that end, please note that we ONLY contact those playwrights whose scripts have reached the final round. Finalists will have two weeks from the date of contact to do any revisions on the script before the final selection committee meets.

This is an exciting process and I am thrilled with how well things have run so far. I look forward to updating you again soon!

The other side

Thank you to everyone who submitted a script for consideration in the 2016 NJ Young Playwrights Festival. I am nearly finished organizing the files to send to our first round readers. We will start the reading process in a matter of days!

Please remember that we do not confirm the receipt of a script: there are just too many to sort through and organize for us to do this efficiently. Additionally, you will be contacted if your play is chosen for the final round or beyond. It will take us some time before those results are available, so take some time to relax. We also encourage you to submit the script to another playwriting program for youth.

Thanks!

Photos from Day 1 - Rehearsals

Yesterday we spent the day reading through all ten plays for the Festival with many of the playwrights present. It was an active day that didn't leave time for many pictures, but here are a few to give a small glimpse into the work that is being done this week:

Read out, Louise!

Just spoke with the mother of one of our Elementary division finalists. The playwright has been working on her script this week and tonight the family will read aloud the current version at the dinner table. The playwright's mom said that hearing it read aloud during the writing residency was so helpful, they have been doing it to help her work on the rewrites!

I was so happy to hear this and wanted to share it with all of you. If you haven't done so yet, get a group together and read the play out loud.

And don't forget, finalists - revised scripts are due soon:

• High School revisions due Friday, March 6
• Elementary revisions due Wednesday, March 11

Don't worry, Junior HS playwrights. We're still working on your plays. There were SO many of them this year that your division is a little behind. We should be in contact with the Junior HS finalists by the end of March. Hang in there!

Call for Readers and Actors for 2015

Interested in participating in the 2015 New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest & Festival? We are currently looking for READERS and ACTORS for both the annual statewide festival and our local Madison Young Playwrights Festival.

Please let us know of your interest by completing our Festival Participation application via SurveyMonkey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FestivalParticipation2015

You can contact the Education office with any questions at education@ptnj.org or 973-514-1787, ext. 21.

Thanks!

Staging student-written work during Theatre in Our Schools month

We're very busy with young playwrights' work this week! Spent yesterday rehearsing for two school assemblies that will be presented today as part of the Madison Young Playwrights Program. There is another assembly on Thursday and a final presentation late next week.

In the middle of all of the work on Madison, there will also be a meeting of the Selection Panel for the NJ Young Playwrights Festival this Friday. The four of us will meet to select up to 10 scripts from the 33 that advanced to this final round of judging.

To reiterate, we will spend the rest of March contacting and confirming details with the selected playwrights. Results will be posted here in early April.

In the meantime, we hope that you are enjoying Theatre in Our Schools Month and will consider attending a play tomorrow, March 20 for the World Day of Theatre for Children.

Reading scripts today!

The view from my desk as I read script submissions for the 2014 NJYPF.