NJ Thespian Festival 2018
On January 13, I led the first ever playwriting workshops and reading series at the New Jersey Thespian Festival. The program was developed this past summer when I was contacted by the president of NJ Thespians after she and a student board member experienced a playwriting workshop at the Thespian Fest in West Virginia. We quickly drew up a set of parameters for the program loosely based on the New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival and with support from Writers Theatre of NJ, the call for submissions went out to Thespian troupes with the start of the school year.
On December 1, 15 plays from high school students in troupes from across the state arrived in my inbox at Writers Theatre. Three of these plays were chosen as part of a reading workshop on the final day of the 2018 Festival. On the first day, I taught a pair of workshops titled JumpStart Playwriting, which gave a basic outline for students to use whether crafting initial ideas for a play, or to further develop stories currently in process. There was plenty of positive feedback from that workshop from students; additionally, the troupe leaders passed along the news that their students had great things to say about the program. This was great to hear not just because it was the kind of feedback one hopes to get from a workshop, but also because I wasn't quite sure how to get everything I wanted to say into a 45 minute period that also allowed students time to write. Glad it worked. I will plan to blog more about the details of the workshop at another time.
On Sunday, January 14, we held a reading of the selected plays from the contest in the Media Center at Robbinsville High School, the site of the Thespian Festival. I wasn't expecting a such a large group and was thrilled to twice expand the reading circle to accommodate the 40 people who ultimately attended.
The response was phenomenal! The questions from the group and the resulting discussion far exceeded expectations and was easily the most introspective post-show discussion I have experienced to date.
This particular group of playwrights have bright futures ahead of them, whatever they might choose to do. I look forward to seeing more of their work in the future and wish them the best with their scripts in the 2018 New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival into which their work was also submitted.
On December 1, 15 plays from high school students in troupes from across the state arrived in my inbox at Writers Theatre. Three of these plays were chosen as part of a reading workshop on the final day of the 2018 Festival. On the first day, I taught a pair of workshops titled JumpStart Playwriting, which gave a basic outline for students to use whether crafting initial ideas for a play, or to further develop stories currently in process. There was plenty of positive feedback from that workshop from students; additionally, the troupe leaders passed along the news that their students had great things to say about the program. This was great to hear not just because it was the kind of feedback one hopes to get from a workshop, but also because I wasn't quite sure how to get everything I wanted to say into a 45 minute period that also allowed students time to write. Glad it worked. I will plan to blog more about the details of the workshop at another time.
On Sunday, January 14, we held a reading of the selected plays from the contest in the Media Center at Robbinsville High School, the site of the Thespian Festival. I wasn't expecting a such a large group and was thrilled to twice expand the reading circle to accommodate the 40 people who ultimately attended.
The response was phenomenal! The questions from the group and the resulting discussion far exceeded expectations and was easily the most introspective post-show discussion I have experienced to date.
This particular group of playwrights have bright futures ahead of them, whatever they might choose to do. I look forward to seeing more of their work in the future and wish them the best with their scripts in the 2018 New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival into which their work was also submitted.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comments. The page moderator will review them soon!