Young Playwrights Festival 2024

YPF is our longest running learning program that encourages expression and creativity in students across the state. Each Spring, we invite and receive hundreds of play submissions from participants in our residencies, and many more from students across Maryland. Playwrights in grades K-12 submit their short plays, and each year up to six plays are chosen to receive a professional  production produced by Baltimore Center Stage. All six YPF playwrights are assigned a mentor to help them refine and edit their scripts before the plays are presented.

This year’s YPF performance will take place on May 18th, 2024.

YPF Residency Program

BRING A YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL RESIDENCY TO YOUR SCHOOL!

YPF also features “in-school” residencies where BCS Teaching Artists partner with classroom teachers to develop plays by young people across Maryland. In seven sessions, our professional teaching artists will lead K-12 classes of up to 30 students through the playwriting process, creating short plays that can be submitted to the annual Young Playwrights Festival competition in collaboration with their classroom teacher. Students are given tools to communicate their ideas, develop characters, write dialogue, and shape their stories. Contact education@centerstage.org for more information on these in-school residencies.

YPF OPEN CALL

Write Your Own Play

Young playwrights are invited to write a play on their own using our YPF Playwriting Guide and Coach Form. Due to the ongoing pandemic, we continue to adapt our YPF curriculum and offer it as a free online download in addition to the in-school residencies. Teachers or enterprising students across Maryland can register at the links below to receive the curriculum and complete it themselves.

Writer’s Group

 

 REGISTER HERE!

Play Parameters:

  • Play must be no more than 10 minutes (8-10 pages)
  • Play must be between 1-6 characters (actors can play multiple roles)
  • The play must respond to this year’s theme

 

The 2023-2024 YPF theme is “The Tales We Tell.”

How would you tell a tale? As you bring your world to life, who dwells in your mystical world? How would a world full of magic and grandeur sustain itself? From the grotesque and the dubious to the majestic and enchanting – how do these characters discover purpose and come together to achieve the unimaginable? Or, are there some problems that simply cannot be solved? What does it look like to consider how conflict either refines or destroys a character? In what ways do these worlds mimic our own? Design a fairytale of your very own exploring where contrasting powers, energies and magic collide to create your play.

 

Submissions for YPF are now open!

SUBMIT YOUR PLAY! 

Deadline for submissions is February 29th, 2024.

 

Eligibility requirements:

  • K-12 student
  • Enrolled in a school (or homeschooled) in the state of Maryland

If you have any questions about how to submit your play to YPF this year, please reach out to our Learning and Social Accountability team at education@centerstage.org.