Young Playwrights for Change Announce Staged Reading at Oregon Children's Theatre

Kaiser Permanente's Educational Theatre Program (ETP) in collaboration with Oregon Children's Theatre is pleased to announce the staged reading for the 2017 Young Playwrights for Change playwriting contest. The reading will be May 21st at 6:30 pm at Oregon Children's Theatre's YP Studio Theater. The event is free and open to the public, but general seating can be reserved online.

Seven scripts (out of 74 total submitted) were selected for this year's Young Playwrights for Change competition, a playwriting contest for middle school students. This is OCT's fifth year sponsoring Young Playwrights for Change. Last year, our submission was the national winner of the contest. This year's topic was "Empathy in Action: Combating Bullying." Students entering the contest needed to consider how to address bullying in their school or community and how they might help others who are being bullied. The plays that were selected also explore such issues as discrimination based on gender, race, religion, and more.

One script was also submitted to be considered for the Young Playwrights for Change national competition, hosted by Theatre for Young Audiences/USA and the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. This year's regional entry to the national competition was Monsters Under My Bed by Annika Duyvestein. The play tells the story of three 13-year-old girls battling sexism, racism, and body-shaming. Duyvestein is a 7th grade student at da Vinci Middle School in Portland.

The other finalists were:

Berlin 1933

by Holland Rhoads, Grade 6

A time and a place described from the perspective of two different classmates - one ripped from her home, and one powerless to do anything but witness it.

It's Hard to Understand

by Kate McStay, Grade 7

Math? A foreign language? Parents? Drew finds it hard to understand her bullies, who, it turns out, aren't all that different than her.

Boys Cry

by Estacada Thorsen, Grade 8

Instead of fighting back, Bella looks past Will's bullying treatment of her to understand why he is fighting back tears.

What Makes A Bully

by Riley Cook, Grade 7

The voice in Grace's head always knows the perfect response to Camille's hurtful behavior - but knowing the words and speaking them are two very different things.

Never Enough

by Julian Geary, Grade 8

Through evocative spoken word poetry, "Never Enough" shows two young men who are determined not to let their past determine their future. This rhythmic short piece confronts racism, Islamaphobia, and bystander intervention.

It's a Two Way Street

by Hazel True, Grade 7

Sebastian tries to acknowledge the elephant in the room-his two friends obviously like each other. Oh, and there is an audience watching their every move.

The seven finalists have had the opportunity to revise their play based on feedback from working artists, and will be in the room with a professional director while their play is rehearsed. The plays will be performed by professional and student performers from throughout the Portland Metro area, and OCT's Young Professionals.

"As a director who is passionate about new work, I can't think of anything more essential to the survival and vitality of theater than cultivating and supporting emerging voices," said ETP Program Director, Tamara Carroll. "Young Playwrights for Change not only carves out a space for young people to explore playwriting, it encourages them to embrace their own power and responsibility to create positive change in their community."

Emphasizing OCT's mission to use theater as an educational tool, all seven plays will be available free of charge on the OCT website for teachers to use in their classrooms. Scripts selected from the previous two years are also available for download.

About Kaiser Permanente's Educational Theatre Program

For more than 25 years, Kaiser Permanente has brought health education to our communities through the Educational Theatre Program (ETP). Live Theater Productions and artist-in-residence programs are offered to schools and communities free of charge in each of Kaiser Permanente's regions. In the northwest, Kaiser Permanente has partnered with Oregon Children's Theatre for more than ten years to bring this vital work to our community, serving nearly 300,000 students, teachers, and families. Kaiser Permanente is proud to support initiatives like ETP that focus on community and well-being. Themes of past plays include obesity and bullying, healthy eating, mental health, and peer pressure.

About Oregon Children's Theatre

Founded in 1988, Oregon Children's Theatre has served over two million children, teachers, and families. OCT is Oregon's largest non-profit professional children's theater company and a resident company of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, and serves more than 120,000 children of all ages each year. Performances are held weekdays for school audiences and on weekends for family audiences. OCT offers numerous school services including study guides, teacher professional development opportunities, in-school workshops, and an extensive outreach program. In partnership with Kaiser Permanente, our Educational Theatre Program provides free touring productions that promote healthy living. OCT's year round Acting Academy offers theater classes for children ages 3-18.

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