Touchstone Theatre Presents The 18th Annual Young Playwrights' Festival This Month

Touchstone Theatre presents the eighteenth year of its acclaimed Young Playwrights' Festival. This showcase of new plays written by local elementary and middle school students performs on May 19th at Zoellner Arts Center's Baker Hall.

Young Playwrights' Lab is an eight-week arts and literacy residency developed by Touchstone and the Bethlehem Area School District using theatre as a "Trojan Horse" to improve student attitudes toward writing and to provide a platform for creative self-expression. Through theatre improvisation, writing exercises, and collaborative critique, each student writes an original one-act play to be considered for performance in the annual Young Playwrights' Festival. The plays that emerge are a rich indicator of the wide variety and depth of their imaginings. While they often include light-hearted elements like talking animals, princesses, and imaginary worlds, the plays also explore universal themes of love, resilience, importance of family, and bravery in the face of adversity.

Over 130 plays were submitted from this year's programs with five exceptional scripts chosen for full production in the Festival: The Evil Bear's Revenge by Jaden Bullock of Farmersville Elementary; Aquil and Paisley Lost Their Pet Jellybean by Zinay Crespo of Freemansburg Elementary; The Princess with a Broadsword by Harper Egging of Governor Wolf Elementary; Spotlight by Sadie Villafane of Lincoln Elementary; and Black Out by Liam Zavatone of Spring Garden Elementary. Directed by Touchstone's ensemble of artists and guest directors from Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and Zoellner Arts Center, the plays are performed by Touchstone actors, community performers, and students from area schools.

Select scenes from five runner up plays will be performed by Touchstone Ensemble Members and Young Playwrights' Lab teaching artists: The Murder Onstage: The Story of How a Middle School's Theatre Ghost Came To Be by Chloe Ferullo of Nitschmann Middle School; The Rude Welcoming by Randy Isaac Flowers of Marvine Elementary; The Mystery of the Lost King by Melis Orul of James Buchanan Elementary School; The Talking Dishes by Mae Sobrinski of Thomas Jefferson Elementary; and Jack and Jill the Scaredy Cats by Bella Velez of Donegan Elementary.

This year's festival also includes an Honorable Mention and Special Dramatist Award for Broughal Middle School student Zoey Sobrinski and their 40-page-long play called The Pearl of Power. A scene from this wildly inventive tale will also be performed at the festival.

"The Young Playwrights' Festival gives the Lehigh Valley a rare opportunity: the chance to look deep into the hearts and minds of our youngest artists," says Mary Wright, Touchstone's Education Director. "The combination of the kids' imaginations and Touchstone's own creates a one-of-a-kind evening of theatre. We invite everyone to celebrate with us the whimsy, wit, and wisdom of our youth."

The Young Playwrights' Festival Naming Sponsor is Peron Development. Touchstone's season is sponsored by Astound Broadband. Print sponsorship is provided by Working Dog Press and media sponsorship is provided by WDIY and Lehigh Valley with Love. Touchstone is also generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

The Young Playwrights' Lab program is gratefully supported through the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program by: Commonwealth Charitable Management, Embassy Bank, Fidelity Bank, Fulton Bank, Peoples Security Bank and Trust, and PPL, and by the following local corporations and foundations: Charles H. Hoch Foundation and Just Born.

The 18th Annual Young Playwrights' Festival takes place on Friday, May 19, 2023 at the Zoellner Arts Center from 7:30-9pm in Baker Hall. Festival tickets are $15. The Festival will also be livestreamed; tickets are $15/household.