Student Playwrights Project
The Student Playwrights Project is the education component of Arena Stage’s commitment to new American voices. Through its annual student ten-minute play competition, in-school residencies, and one-time playwriting workshops, the Student Playwrights Project:
- Encourages playwriting instruction by middle and high school teachers;
- Exposes students to theater and playwriting in an active, creative way;
- Uses theater to improve other important skills, such as critical thinking, writing, self-expression, and teamwork; and
- Explores theatrical performance as a way of improving literacy skills, building self-confidence, and enriching positive community.
In-School Residencies
Each year, Arena Stage partners with a select group of public, private and charter school teachers in the D.C. Metro Area for yearlong, in-school playwriting residencies with Arena Stage teaching artists. With the help of their teaching artist and classroom teacher, students write individual ten-minute plays, then write and perform an original collaborative play on one of Arena’s stages. While working toward these goals, students learn teamwork, self-confidence and critical thinking, and their teachers receive professional development to help them integrate theater into their classrooms.
PARTNER TEACHERS RECEIVE:
- A yearlong partnership with Arena Stage.
- An Arena-trained teaching artist in your classroom to work with you and your students directly. The teaching artist will come to your classroom for approximately 20 visits between October and May. You and your teaching artist will determine the schedule. The teaching artist will direct the students in a student-written, student-performed piece. The plays will be performed in a final showcase in May.
- Professional development workshops on playwriting, performance skills, ensemble-building, and directing. Workshops are taught by professional artists and Arena Stage education staff.
- The Student Playwrights Project Handbook, complete with lesson plans, theory and resources. Teachers also receive a copy of Viola Spolin’s Improvisation for the Theater, Will Weigler’s Strategies for Playbuilding: Helping Groups Translate Issues into Theatre, and Michael Rohd’s Theatre for Community, Conflict & Dialogue: The Hope Is Vital Training Manual.
- Theater tickets for your class to see a weekday matinee of an Arena Stage production. Teachers are responsible for arranging transportation.
REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATING TEACHERS:
- Meet with your assigned teaching artist in person or by phone to schedule visits and to plan.
- Plan to devote 20-25 hours per class periods throughout the year to have the teaching artist lead an ongoing exploration of theater and playwriting in your classroom.
- If participating in SPP as part of an afterschool program or otherwise optional activity, recruit and retain at least 12 (and not more than 25) students.
- Be present in the classroom and involved as a participant in the activities presented by the teaching artist, since teacher participation provides a strong positive model for students. Student teachers are welcome to participate, but they cannot substitute. You, the classroom teacher, must be present when the teaching artist is working in the classroom.
- Ensure that each student completes an individual ten-minute play and submits it to the competition (details below).
- Ensure that students are prepared to participate (lines and blocking memorized) in the final performance showcase.
- Attend all required professional development workshops.
- Arrange transportation for Arena Stage fieldtrips to ensure students’ participation.
- Continue the work on playwriting or rehearsal between teaching artist visits. You may be dropped from the program if the teaching artist reports that nothing has been done in the classroom between visits.
Participants
We are recruiting middle and high school teachers (grades 6-12) to be partner teachers in our intensive yearlong program.
Program Format
- In the fall
- An Arena Stage-trained teaching artist works with students to explore the art of writing a ten-minute play. Students then write individual ten-minute plays to submit to Arena's annual competition.
- In the spring
- The teaching artist works with the same class as a group to devise and rehearse a collaborative ten-minute play, which the class then performs at the Student Playwrights Project Showcase in the spring.
If selected as a partner teacher, you must commit to all aspects of the program.
Program Fees
For more information, please call Raymond Caldwell at 202-600-4067 or e-mail education@arenastage.org. Teachers in D.C. public or charter schools receive a discounted rate of $500 per classroom for this yearlong residency.
To Submit
Student Ten-Minute Play Competition
Arena Stage invites D.C. Metro Area students in 5th through 12th grades to enter an original ten-minute play into the 2012 Student Playwrights Project Ten-Minute Play Competition.
Plays must be received no later than Friday, December 2, 2011.
Awards for winning playwrights:
- Winners workshop their plays with professional playwrights, directors and dramaturgs
- Winning plays are performed by professional actors at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater
- Winning playwrights receive a $250 cash prize
- Honorable Mention plays receive staged readings by professional actors
Playwrights:
- Playwrights must be students in 5th through 12th grades
- Students must attend school in the District of Columbia, City of Alexandria, or one of the following counties: Loudoun, Prince William, Fairfax, Arlington, Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s, or St. Mary’s. Home-schooled students must be residents of D.C., Alexandria, or one of the listed counties.
Requirements:
- Plays must be the original, unpublished work of one playwright. Pieces written by more than one student will not be accepted.
- Suggested length is 6-10 pages; plays longer than 12 pages will not be read.
- All submissions must include an Arena Stage cover sheet, which may be downloaded at www.arenastage.org. Plays will not be accepted without a cover sheet.
- All plays must be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point font, with page numbers.
- The title of the play and the playwright’s grade should be listed on each page of the play.
- The playwright’s name, contact information, or school should not appear anywhere on the play except the cover sheet.
NOTES:
Entries must be received by 5 p.m. on Friday, December 2, 2011 to be eligible for competition. Submitted scripts will not be returned. Winners and honorable mention recipients will be asked to provide electronic copies of their scripts as Microsoft Word documents.
If you would like to confirm receipt of your submission, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard. Please do not call about the status of your play. Winners will be notified by Arena Stage and the list posted at www.arenastage.org sometime in late January or early February.
To Submit
Mail three (3) copies of the play with the cover sheet stapled to the top copy to:
Student Playwrights Project
Arena Stage
Community Engagement Division
1101 Sixth St., SW
Washington, DC 20024
FREE One-Time Interactive Playwriting Workshops
for Students
Teachers whose schools are located inside the Capital Beltway may schedule a one-time interactive playwriting workshop with an Arena Stage teaching artist to help prepare students to write a ten-minute play.
Dates: Oct. 18-Nov. 18, 2011
Length: 45 minutes
Where: Your D.C. Metro Area school. (If your school is not Metro-accessible, you may be asked to provide transportation from the nearest Metro station.)
Size: Maximum of 30 students (minimum of 12 students)
Cost: FREE – participating students must submit a play to the competition.
Schedule
Call 202-554-9066 ext. 5059
or email education@arenastage.org
after September 15 to arrange a workshop.
