Applications Now Open For New Victory Theater/24 Hour Plays' 'Speak Up, Act Out' Creative Writing Partnership

The New Victory Theater and The 24 Hour Plays have partnered for Speak Up, Act Out: Celebrating Student Voices, a creative writing program aimed at uplifting student writers and their work. New York City students in grades 5 through 12 are encouraged to submit applications by February 25. Selected writers will participate in a one night only Off-Broadway production of The 24 Hour Plays, written by the young playwrights and performed by leading actors from Broadway, television and film. 

Six young writers will be chosen to participate in the program by a panel of professional artists including New Victory Teaching Artists and professional playwrights including Dave Harris (Tambo and Bones), Julia Jordan (Murder Ballad), Roger Q Mason (Lavender Men), Brittany Allen (Redwood), and Morgan J. Smart (Our Mother’s Mothers). Those chosen will work directly with mentor playwrights to develop their dramatic writing skills and prepare to have their work produced in this one-time-only live theatrical performance. 

The 24 Hour Plays: New Victory will take place at The New Victory Theater on May 4, when the six young playwrights collaborate with professional actors, directors, designers and technicians to realize an evening of new short plays — written, rehearsed and performed in 24 hours. 

The submission portal is now open HERE. 

Official submissions from individual students must include a teacher, educator or administrator and parent or guardian contact information. They are due no later than Sunday, February 25, 2024at 11:59pm ET. 

About New Victory Theater

The New Victory opens new worlds to young people and families through extraordinary performances, education and engagement programs. Bringing kids to the arts and the arts to kids since 1995, this nonprofit theater has become a standard-bearer of quality performing arts for young audiences in the United States. Reflecting and serving the multicultural city it calls home, The New Victory is committed to arts access for all communities of New York to experience and engage with the exemplary international shows on its stages. A global leader in arts education, youth development and audience engagement, the New Victory Theater has been honored by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, by Americans for the Arts with a national Arts Education Award, and by the Drama Desk for "providing enchanting, sophisticated children's theater that appeals to the child in all of us, and for nurturing a love of theater in young people."

About New 42

Under the leadership of President & CEO Russell Granet, New 42 is a cultural nonprofit whose mission is to make extraordinary performing arts a vital part of everyone’s life from the earliest years onward. Driven by a deep commitment to performing arts access, New 42 connects people to world-class performances, essential education and employment programs, and creative communities that push culture forward. Through New Victory and New 42 Studios, the nonprofit serves artists, educators and New Yorkers of all ages with invaluable arts engagement and resources in and beyond the performing arts. Together with our supporters, New 42 opens new perspectives, incubates new works and creates new opportunities to move us all.

ABOUT THE 24 HOUR PLAYS

The 24 Hour Plays bring together creative communities to produce plays and musicals written, rehearsed, and performed in 24 hours. Through our radically present approach to theater, we make work that responds immediately to the world around us, builds communities and generates new artistic partnerships that extend throughout the arts and entertainment industry. Our events includeThe 24 Hour Plays on Broadway and The 24 Hour Musicals, plus productions in Los Angeles, Denver, Dublin, Finland, Little Rock, London, Mexico City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Sacramento and more. Beginning March 17, 2020, The 24 Hour Plays Viral Monologues series generated over 600 new free-to-view theater pieces, viewed millions of times worldwide and archived in the Library of Congress. Each summer, over 50 early-career theater professionals join our annual free professional intensive culminating in their own production of The 24 Hour Plays in an Off-Broadway theater. The 24 Hour Plays Nationals have introduced audiences and collaborators to a new generation of artists changing the game in theater, TV and film. The 24 Hour Plays are an enduring New York City institution, while licensed partners produce The 24 Hour Plays in theaters and schools worldwide. 

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