Photos from Day 2 - Rehearsals, Tech, and Performance

Yesterday was a full day at the Festival with an early afternoon of rehearsals for the High School plays and a tech and performance of Junior HS and Elementary plays in the evening. Here are just a few pictures from the day. You can find more on our Facebook page under the album titled 2015 NJYPFestival.

Playwright Betsy Zaubler discusses a change in her script during rehearsals for THANKSGIVING SURPRISE.

One of many emotional scenes from WORN THIN by Gabrielle Poisson.

A fun scene from DOPPELGANGER by Paige Warnock (Junior HS Division winner). Here Adelaide (Rosemary Glennon, left) thinks that Mary Beth (Kelley McAndrews, right) is her reflection in a mirror. In the script, they are both wearing wedding dresses and preparing to marry the same man!

The Junior HS and Elementary playwrights with the cast at the end of last night's performance.

Announcing the selected playwrights for the 2015 NJYPF

We finally have everything lined up where we can share the complete list of playwrights whose work has been selected for performance in the 2015 New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival (listed in alphabetical order by title):

High School Division
Listen by Jack Kimber, Chatham High School
Pretty Girl by Laura Diorio, Middletown High School South
Thanksgiving Surprise by Betsy Zaubler, Newark Academy
Worn Thin by Gabrielle Poisson,Newark Academy

Junior High School Division
Doppelganger by Paige Warnock, 9th grade, Union County Academy for Performing Arts
Love Bites by Cathryn Mesce, 9th grade, Union County Academy for Performing Arts
The Angel Side by Evelyn Doskoch, Columbia Middle School

Elementary School Division
Sibling Rivalry by Artha Abeysinghe, Torey J. Sabatini ES
Stitches - Dun, Dun, Dun by Josephine Walker, Torey J. Sabatini ES
Storm in a Cup by Francesca Wan, St. Vincent Martyr School

Congratulations to those selected and to those who reached the final round of judging!

The Junior HS and Elementary plays will be read on Monday, June 1 @ 7:00 pm; the High School plays receive a staged-reading on Tuesday, June 2 @ 7:00 pm. Both presentations will be held on the Florham Campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University. For details and reservations, visit the PTNJ website and select the link for the Festival date you wish to attend.

To learn more about the playwrights, please visit the NJYPF website and select the link for playwrights bios. We will also be asking the high school playwrights a series of 5 Questions, which will be posted to the blog in the days leading up to the Festival on June 1 and June 2.

Day 3 - Readings of the High School plays

Prop chicken for Enter Banquo's Ghost by Miranda Hoyt-Disick.
Our Props Manager made this from newspaper and tape in only 20 minutes!

On Tuesday, June 3, we presented the plays from the High School Division of the 2014 New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival along with a special reading of a play from the Living with Disabilities category.

Rosemary Glennon and Seth Jambor in Hurricane Season by Alexa Derman

The day begin with an afternoon of tech rehearsals for the four High School Division plays in which a number of final script changes were implemented. Tech rehearsal is a chance for me to get "production" shots from the Festival, which had to be done with a smart phone. Apologies for some of the blurriness this may have caused!

Cara Ganski and Dan Pellicano in Ink Never Dulls by Talia Green

Dan Pellicano and Timothy Regan in Mechanical Advancement by Emily Donegan

The evening performance began with a special reading of Midnight by Hazel Solender. This play was chosen in our Living with Disabilities category through a grant from VSA, the international organization on arts and disabilities at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Hazel's script, along with others submitted to the NJ Young Playwrights Festival via the Living with Disabilities category, was sent to VSA for consideration in the annual Playwright Discovery Program.

High School Division plays followed with staged readings given by members of two separate casts. The plays were presented in the following order: Enter Banquo's Ghost by Miranda Hoyt-Disick, Hurricane Season by Alexa Derman, Ink Never Dulls by Talia Green, and Mechanical Advancement by Emily Donegan.

In addition to their selection in the NJ Young Playwrights Festival, the scripts by Talia Green, Emily Donegan, and Alexa Derman were also chosen by the Roxbury Arts Alliance/Roxbury Performing Arts Center for presentation in late July. My Life, My Family, Not My Wallet by Christopher Frick in the Junior HS Division was also selected for this program. In late July, these four plays will be remounted with a new cast and new revisions.

We are also happy to share that this week Alexa Derman is traveling to Los Angeles for the presentation of her play What We Talk About When We Talk About Planned Parenthood, which was a winner in the national young playwrights festival produced by The Blank Theatre.

A fantastic evening of plays from a remarkably talented group of young writers!

You can see additional pictures from the NJ Young Playwrights Festival on our Facebook page here.

High School playwrights and Cast

We again offer our congratulations to everyone who wrote and submitted a play to the Festival. We hope that you continue to share your creative imaginations with us and look forward to receiving a new script from you next year...

... that said ...

There will be some changes to the NJ Young Playwrights format for next year. We will announce some preliminary details within the next few days in order to inform schools of the change so that they can prepare for the fall semester. Further details will be released in the summer. So, please stay tuned!

Announcing the 2014 New Jersey Young Playwrights

Congratulations to the 2014 New Jersey Young Playwrights! (Plays are listed alphabetically by the playwrights' last names)

HIGH SCHOOL (grades 10-12)

- Hurricane Season by Alexa Derman

- Mechanical Advancement by Emily Donegan

- Ink Never Dulls by Talia Green

- Enter Banquo's Ghost by Miranda Hoyt-Disick

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL (grades 7-9)

- My Life, My Family, Not My Wallet by Christopher Frick

- Accounting for Change by Elizabeth Hendy

- An Underdog Story by Morgan McCauley

ELEMENTARY (grades 4-6)

- So Let's Get Cooking by Lily Bauer

- Zoe Verrazano's Big Adventure by Katie Dore

- A Good Story, A Beautiful Life by Ashley Jiang

- I Beat the Bully by Amanda Kefalas

An announcement regarding the REVOLUTIONARY PLAYS division will be coming soon.

Plays from the Elementary and Junior HS divisions will be presenting as readings on Monday, June 2.

Plays from the High School division will be presented as staged readings on Tuesday, June 3.

High school playwrights will also receive a 2014 New Jersey Governors Award in Arts Education at a special event in Trenton on Thursday, May 1.

For more information about the Festival, or the playwrights, please visit our website at http://www.njypf.org

Congratulations to the playwrights whose work was selected for the Festival and to all of those who submitted a script!