New Plays For Young Audiences to Present Three New Scripts For Young Audiences

NYU's New Plays for Young Audience will celebrate its 26th season of nurturing new voices and theatrical styles with free readings of three new works from three venerated TYA playwrights. This year's line-up continues the program's legacy of amplifying youth stories and nurturing new works for young audiences. The 2024 series also celebrates the release of an anthology of scripts from the NPYA series.

Since its founding in 1998, NPYA has built a legacy of supporting award-winning plays and playwrights, including Laurie Brooks (Deadly Weapons, The Wrestling Season), Finegan Kruckemeyer (Zachary Briddling Who Was Awfully Middling), and José Cruz González (Earth Songs, Super Cowgirl and Mighty Miracle), all of whom return for the 2024 series. In addition, Oscar winner Kevin Willmott (co-writer of BlacKkKlansman) worked with NPYA on The Watsons Go to Birmingham (adapted from the book by Christopher Paul Curtis) and Becoming Martin. Many of the more than 50 playwrights who have participated in the program have won prestigious awards, including multiple Distinguished Play of the Year honors from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education.

The 26th season's rehearsed readings are presented at the Provincetown Playhouse, 133 MacDougal St. General admission tickets are free and audience members must reserve seats ahead of time. You can find an Eventbrite link for each reading after its description below. Audiences will be invited to their seats 15 minutes prior to each reading.

The 2024 program opens with The Great Ignored, a play that will be performed June 8 at 7 p.m. and June 9 at 2 p.m. Written by playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer, existing in a broken Noir city, a quartet of child-sized heroes use their being overlooked to find out adult-sized information and solve adult-sized mysteries. Led by Bianca 'The Anchor' Carter from her backyard treehouse, The Great Ignored use their invisibility and cunning to run rings around every big-city criminal they find. That is... until one of those big-city criminals (someone villainous and unknown) turns the tables on our heroes. Will they have the strength and cunning to turn them back? Best enjoyed by ages 8-14 and their families. Directed by Nancy Smithner. Free tickets can be reserved here (https://forms.gle/ERAAZDjVJEusgJy76) beginning May 1. Find out more on the script website.

Speak by Laurie Brooks is adapted from the popular book by Laurie Halse Anderson and is presented June 15 at 7 p.m. and June 16 at 2 p.m. This play tells the story of outcast Melinda as she enters high school. It's not going well. Her old friends won't talk to her, and others just glare at her or make fun of her. Struggling with classes, friends and home life, Melinda retreats into her head, where she hides a terrible secret that won't go away. Her grades drop, she gets into trouble and even though her parents try to help in their own way, Melinda will not talk to them. Then, a painful confrontation at a school party forces her to face the truth about what happened to her. With help from a friend and an unsuspected teacher, Melinda discovers she must share her secret. This moving young woman has realized that although it's hard to speak up for yourself, keeping silent is worse. Directed by Barry Kornhauser. Best enjoyed by ages 12-18. Content warning: There is a reference to rape and sexual assault. Free tickets can be reserved here beginning May 1. Find out more on the script website. There is a pre-show event on 6/15 from 5-6:30pm co-sponsored by TYA/USA, more information found on the reservation site as well as the Google site. Speak has been commissioned by Prime Stage.

The third and final offering is The Wondrous Adventures of Pia Sandía by José Cruz González. The Wondrous Adventures of Pia Sandía is a mash-up of musical theatre, puppetry, magic, toy theatre, graphic novel and digital media exploring Mesoamerican/Chicanx art and culture with big themes such as the pandemic, climate change, and trauma in young people. A collaboration with In Other People's Shoes Productions. Directed by Robert Castro with dramaturgy from Mireya (Murry) Hepner. Readings will be held on Saturday, June 22, at 7pm and Sunday, June 23, at 2pm. Best enjoyed by ages 9 and up. Free tickets can be reserved here (https://forms.gle/kxUpm7mPMVHLqjfG6) beginning May 1. Find out more on the script website.