I’m Running for YPT Because …

It’s hard to believe, but the mornings are getting cooler, shelves are stocked with back-to-school supplies, and here at YPT we are gearing up for an amazing new year of programming and performances. Summer is almost over, and in less than two months, YPT staff and friends will be lacing up their running (or walking) shoes to Race for a Cause™ on October 14^th!

Why run for YPT? For a little inspiration, check out some of our staff members’ personal motivations, and register today to join us! Already registered? Share why you’re running for YPT in the comments section, or on our Facebook page and help inspire others. Let’s show Acumen Solutions that we have the best community of support around!

Name: Nicole, Associate Artistic Director

Team: Magnet Dude

I’m running for YPT because …

I want to say yes to all the schools on our waiting list. There is so much demand for our programming – we need to grow so we can serve more students!

I run … never. Never ever. That’s dedication right there! I’ll be huffing and puffing with the “go at your own pace” crew. In fact, I’ll probably be behind the crew. But I’ll be there!

Name: Alison, Development and Producing Associate

Team: Supergirl

I’m running for YPT because …

I want my first official race to support an organization that I care deeply about.

I run … sometimes. A couple miles on the treadmill, or a few laps around my block on the rare occasion when it’s not a steam bath outside. But I’m ready to go beyond my comfort zone, and what better reason to participate in my first 8k than running to support the arts, and YPT’s goal to serve more students than ever before this year! If our students are brave enough to share their dreams, hopes and fears with the world through their plays, I think I can make it to the finish line. I just may need a very large Gatorade.

Name: Laurie, Program Associate

Team: Flatworm

I’m running for YPT because …

Finally, I will be able to truly compete in something involving physical ability. 

Ever since I was a kid I’ve been extremely competitive, but have never been able to channel that into sports because I’m pathetically unathletic.  When it came to geography bees or Crypto (an awesome math game from my freshman algebra class) I was known to flip desks and scream “IN YOUR FACE!” when I was on a winning streak, but in gym class I always hung back.  I mean, I rocked at badminton when we got to play that, but anything that involved real coordination or strength was not my forte.  But now that I am in the Flatworm 1 Mile Walk/Run group, I feel confident that I can dominate over the children and elderly that will be running alongside me.  Finally, I will be able to truly compete in something involving physical ability.  Please have “Eye of the Tiger” cued up for my victory lap around Arlington.

Name: Brigitte, Acting Executive Director

Team: Magnet Dude

I’m running for YPT because …

I believe that what YPT students have to say matters. Plus, it’s a great excuse to buy sweet new running shoes.

I’m going to be honest. I don’t run. I’ve never run a city block – let alone an 8K. But I believe deeply in YPT, and I’ll do anything for our students – even it means running/walking/dragging myself over the finish line on October 14. I’ve even downloaded a running app for my phone and started thinking about my 8K playlist. That counts as training, right? I’m so excited to see the YPT community pull together this October to show YPT students that their voices matter, their stories are important and their dreams are achievable. It’s going to be an inspiring day, and I can’t wait to be part of it.

Are you already planning how to spend your share of the $2000 that Acumen Solutions will award to top race winners, or are you just excited to get outside and get some exercise with friends? Share your story with us, and follow us throughout the fall for training tips, inspirational stories and updates! Remember, the more people who race for us, the more money we raise to teach young people that their voices count! 

Thank you, as always, for your amazing support!  See you on October 14th!

For more information on the 2012 Acumen Solutions Race for a Cause™ 8k and 1 Mile Fun Run, click here.

What We Value: The Young Playwrights’ Workshop

I started working with the after-school Young Playwrights’ Workshop last spring. Our students inspired me. (It was not surprising – our students inspire me constantly.) Here was a group of people that were so supportive of one another, so courageous with their art form, so happy to share their thoughts and dreams. Basically, they were a functioning ensemble. It worked.

I wanted to understand how it worked. I’m sure everyone has, at some point in their lives, tried to work together with nine or ten other people and failed. So what was the Workshop doing differently? What was their secret?

I asked them, and here’s what they said:

“We may not all have the same opinions on certain subjects, but the key ingredient that holds us together is respect.”

“We agree on not making fun of people.”

“I love hearing a different approach to the same topic! It’s so wonderful to see something in someone else’s point of view.”

I continued to mull over these responses during the summer. The students were right on about their success. But could it be replicated? I was scared and excited to take over leading the Workshop in the fall. What if this dynamic had been a fluke? What if we couldn’t make it work without the seniors who had gone on to college? What if, what if, what if.

What was needed was a way to inspire the new Workshop the same way last year’s students inspired me. We needed to name what was important, and to agree on what we were working towards. As excited as everyone was about the product (the performance in June), it was just as important to have a rewarding process. How did the Workshop want to get where it was going?

Again, all I had to do was ask. I borrowed from Michael Rohd’s excellent book Theatre for Community, Conflict and Dialogue, leading the new and returning students in a values clarification exercise. I read various statements and asked the students to move to a different spot in the room, depending on whether they agreed, disagreed, or were unsure. I found out where there was consensus and where there was discord. For example, I read: “I am here to make friends.” There were different opinions in the group. Some students disagreed, saying that they preferred to focus on achieving the goal of performance. Others spoke to their experience in the workforce, saying that you don’t have to be best friends with someone to get a job done. On the other hand, some students expressed that friendships can help with collaboration – when you know someone well you can communicate easily. The point of the exercise is not to debate each statement, just to understand the different points of view that are present in the room. (In that way the exercise fit in with the reflections of last year’s ensemble.)

I also asked students to write towards this question of values individually. I ended up with a wealth of raw material to draw from, and only needed to give it shape. The ensemble unanimously approved these values on October 19. These are the values that the Workshop will strive to live out this year:

• Respect: We are a team. We treat every member of the team with respect, and we embrace each other’s differences. It is never okay to make fun of someone’s idea.
• Collaboration: We work together by making a thread. We each add a little piece of fiber and in the end we get this rope. We are all linked together by this passion that brings us understanding and abundant knowledge about each other and our world.
• Freedom of Expression: We want this program to be a place where a person can freely express their opinions. All ideas are important. All ideas are considered.
• Evolution: We are here to grow as writers and actors.
• Commitment: We depend on each other as a team. We each take pride in our own work and the work of the whole group. We always try our best.
• Impact: We want people to be inspired by our work. We will create theater that is relevant to our community, and will make people think.
• Fun: This is not school, and it shouldn’t feel like school. We are here to have fun!

The values are posted on the walls of the studio for everyone to see. I asked the students to sign contracts, agreeing to uphold these values, and to hold each other to them as well. And that includes me! I hope that if I become boring, someone will just raise their hand and point to “Fun.” That’ll teach me.

If you want to join the Workshop, click here. We’d love to have you.

Nicole
Program Manager

Meet the YPT Staff

YPT’s 2012 fiscal year began this month, and we could not be more excited to kick off another school year. We invite all of you to meet the FY12 staff and learn more about their roles with the company, and their dreams for the year!

David Snider, Producing Artistic Director and CEO

Time at YPT: Six years.
Role in FY12: I’ll be guiding the organization’s long-term vision, growth and sustainability, and focusing on board development and company culture.
Dream for FY12: To tee up YPT for even greater growth moving forward, towards a $1M budget, in order to serve more students better and longer.
Personal FY12 Theme Song: Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow by Fleetwood Mac.

Brigitte Pribnow Moore, Deputy Director

Time at YPT: Five years.
Role in FY12: In my new role as Deputy Director, I will be driving YPT’s fundraising and communications activities, and working with YPT’s senior staff and board on company culture, management and vision for the future. Exciting stuff.
Dream for FY12: This year, I want all of the members of our community - our students, parents, staff, artists, teachers, volunteers and supporters - to feel deeply valued and inspired. We are a company driven by amazing people, and we’ll be working hard to celebrate and honor all of you this year.
Personal FY12 Theme Song: What a Feeling by Irene Cara. That’s right. I went there.

Nicole Jost, Program Manager

Time at YPT: I first interned for YPT in 2006. I joined the staff in 2008.
Role in FY12: This year, I will continue to ensure that all of YPT’s programs provide an excellent experience for students. I will also lead our Young Playwrights’ Workshop student ensemble in the creation of a new original play, and grow YPT’s relationships with the communities we serve.
Dream for FY12: I hope to inspire students to pursue their dreams – whatever they may be!
Personal FY12 Theme Song: Eye of the Tiger by Survivor.

Laurie Ascoli, Program Associate

Time at YPT: As a teaching artist, I’ve been with YPT since August 2009. I’ve been on staff since August 2010.
Role in FY12: I’m primarily dedicated to programming, so I deal with everything related to our in-school and after-school workshops. In addition to teaching my own classes, I help to create curriculum, hire other teaching artists, make sure that all of the classes are running smoothly, and prepare for performances of student work. I’m also going to be working on community engagement this year with our Student and Community Ambassadors programs and other outreach initiatives.
Dream for FY12: I hope that all of the programming work we do this year will make the students we serve feel that their thoughts and opinions matter, get them excited about writing, and help them view the arts as a safe space to be themselves and share their ideas.
Personal FY12 Theme Song: Stevie Wonder’s I Wish. It is literally impossible to hear that song and not instantly feel better about life.

Alison Beyrle, Development and Producing Associate

Time at YPT: I have worked at YPT since August 2010.
Role in FY12: On the development side, I’ll be writing and sending out a lot of grant proposals and researching new opportunities for YPT, in addition to maintaining our contact database and communicating with our funders and donors. On the producing side, I’m excited to take on new production duties such as scheduling, maintaining production storage and ensuring that we have everything we need for the amazing performances coming up in FY12!
Dream for FY12: I would like to help YPT grow in new ways, while keeping everything well-organized and efficient along the way.
Personal FY12 Theme Song: Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles.

Liza Harbison, Communications and Graphic Design Associate

Time at YPT: One year.
Role in FY12: I will communicate YPT’s mission and dedication to our students through online and print communications.
Dream for FY12: My goal is to continue to learn and grow in communications and graphic design while getting to spend time with our awesome students and staff!
Personal FY12 Theme Song: In general the Fresh Prince theme song, but in relation to YPT I would say Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen.

Click here to learn more about the YPT staff. We can’t wait to celebrate the ideas and imaginations of YPT students with all of you in FY12!

A Superhero Play by a Superhero Student

Dakota Wenberg is not sure what she wants to be when she grows up. She’s thinking she’ll either be a playwright or an astronaut (or maybe both), but she knows she still has a few years to decide.

Dakota is an eighth grade student at Swanson Middle School, and one of the fifteen talented young writers who will be featured in YPT’s 2011 New Play Festival.

I was thrilled when YPT’s Program Manager Nicole Jost invited me to serve as Dakota’s dramaturge and help her revise and develop her play for production. I remembered reading Dakota’s play, A Jewel of a Date, when I participated in YPT’s New Play Festival Reading Committee in January. Each Reading Committee member was responsible for reading and commenting on dozens of student-written plays from YPT’s In-School Playwriting Program, but Dakota’s play stood out for me. I was so impressed by her imaginative characters and her quick, witty dialogue. I remember sitting in my kitchen laughing, reading Dakota’s opening monologue out loud to my husband, and telling him, “YPT has to produce this play.”

A Jewel of a Date is an unconventional superhero story. The play’s protagonist is Superman’s daughter, Supergirl (also known as Liz). Throughout the play, Liz struggles to balance her life as a teenage girl navigating the new and uncertain territories of dating and high school, with her life as a tough, crime-fighting superhero. As Liz says in her opening monologue, “Girl stuff is hard, superhero stuff is super. So girl superhero stuff is SUPER HARD.” The play is often hilarious, sometimes poignant and always thoroughly entertaining.

I loved working with Dakota to develop her story. Dakota is a busy student. Last month, she was the stage manager for her school’s production of Beauty and Beast. She has swim practice every Tuesday. She sings in an after-school chorus at school and a youth choir at her church. But she still managed to come to each of our dramaturgy meetings completely prepared (with a laptop, multiple copies of her play and all of her YPT paperwork completed and signed) and excited to engage in an enthusiastic, focused dialogue about her play.

Dakota turned in the final draft of her play last week. Over the next month, she will have several opportunities to sit in on New Play Festival rehearsals and give the director and actors feedback as they bring her words to life. I can’t wait to hear what she thinks.

Brigitte
Development Director

Kicking Off the New Play Festival

During the spring and fall of 2010, hundreds of students in YPT’s In-School Playwriting Program wrote original plays about everything from vampires to gangs to superheroes. Of the over 500 plays in this pool, a reading committee composed of staff, teaching artists, actors and community members narrowed the group to 15. As part of the committee, I enjoyed having unique insight into our students’ creative processes. I was struck by the overall originality and eloquence of our young people, and especially of those we selected to produce.

For this reason, I was incredibly excited to meet our fifteen student playwrights at the New Play Festival Kick-Off Party on Saturday, February 12. Though I had never met most of these students, I felt I already knew them. Somehow reading someone’s play feels like reading the playwright, even when their story is completely imagined.

We played a game at the party that made the connection between the playwrights and their plays even more pronounced. Students were divided into groups by the night of the New Play Festival they will be produced and asked to embody their protagonist, working together to create a tableau. Program Manager Nicole Jost read play descriptions aloud and the audience had to match the play descriptions with their playwrights. The way the students embodied their characters said as much about their own personalities as those of their protagonists.

The first time Nicole called “action!”, the playwrights that will be produced on April 11 sprung into their tableau. Lauren White immediately flopped onto the floor in imitation of her superhero protagonist, Flatworm, and Marco Anderson growled into place as his fearsome feline, Mr. Jinks. Nneamaka Iwobi struck a confident pose as her singing-sensation character Kelly, while Paul McCoyer looked greedily at imaginary currency as Jack in his satirical play Money, Money, Money.

The tableaus for the Tuesday, April 12, and Wednesday, April 13, performances of the New Play Festival were more subtle. Johana Cedillos and Amber Faith Walton exhibited thoughtful creativity by melding their characters’ dark confusion into a combined tableau representing their plays Scarred with Faces and Changing Tides: Judge Me Gently. Taj Vereen stood in composed calm as the not-yet-existent protagonist of his play The Concept of Conception,  while Rasheeda Williams and Saviya Brown moved broadly to display the strength of their characters Morgan and Derrick from A Thin Line Between Her & Us and Taken 4 Granted.

I loved seeing the different creative energies in the room and watching the way the playwrights interacted with each other, their families, and the community members celebrating them. The party was a reminder of what makes YPT unique among theaters in DC.

Yes, we do produce awesome plays. But we also produce awesome students.

The Kick-Off Party was the beginning of a long process of dramaturgy for the playwrights. Click here to learn more about the playwrights and their plays, and don’t forget to celebrate with us at the New Play Festival on April 11, 12, and 13, at 7:30pm, at GALA Hispanic Theatre!

Raina
Community Engagement Associate

Something to SMYAL About

Back in October, YPT initiated a partnership with another organization that serves our city’s youth: Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL).

Partnering with SMYAL has been a dream of mine for a couple years now. As a queer woman, I can’t help wondering about LGBT youth within the walls of every school I step into. In light of the recent tragic suicides within this national community, the need to hear these students’ voices is even more urgent.

SMYAL is located in a cozy blue row house on Capitol Hill. I noticed immediately that the youth who walked through SMYAL’s door felt at home. They readily prepared Hot Pockets in the kitchen, flopped on the couches, and gave friendly greetings to staff and youth alike. This is a community, built on mutual respect and trust.

My role is to work within SMYAL’s Youth Arts Program, ably lead by Stephanie Remick, Youth Leadership Coordinator. I will continue working with this group all year.

I told the youth when I first met them that at YPT we believe every person has a story worth telling. I want to give them the opportunity to tell theirs. With such a close-knit bunch, I knew that I would have to earn everyone’s trust.

During one workshop I led the youth in a story sharing exercise. We split into partnerships, and I instructed them to tell their partners the story of a time when they felt proud of themselves. My partner was clearly still trying to figure me out. She shared a proud moment, but without detail, just a bold declaration, leaving me to fill in the blanks.

When it came time to share I told the students that instead of sharing their own stories they would share what their partner told them. On top of that, they would share their partner’s story in the first person and attempt to imitate his/her gestures, tone of voice, etc.

I took the floor. I shifted my weight and assumed a standoffish pose. I did my best impersonation of my partner’s voice, and tried to match her boldness.

“I graduated high school. Until you graduate high school, you’re still a child.”

She cracked up. Her body language softened, and she congratulated me on my performance. It was a small moment, but I knew that I had expanded her perception of me. Perhaps I could be trusted.

Currently we’re working on the creation of a short performance to mark the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)’s “No Name-Calling Week.” I’m excited to hear the youth’s contributions to this much-discussed topic. It promises to be eye opening.

Nicole
Program Manager

My Answer to the Question: whYPT?

My relationship with YPT began eight years ago, when I was in high school. It was a very weird time in my life. I wasn’t investing in my education, I was just trying to get by. I put way more work into the play I wrote for YPT than I did into Chemistry and Math.

I’ve spoken before about how powerful it was for me when YPT produced my play. I watched as professional actors, people who are trained to use words, actually said my words. It was a huge boost of confidence. I often think back to that moment when I’m in the classroom. I get to say to my students, “I was where you are. If I can do it, so can you.”

I went to college in Santa Cruz, California. When I left DC I didn’t think I was coming back. I was going to paradise and I was going to become happy and mellow. Instead, I developed this yearning to return here. I really wanted to change things. I saw such injustice: it’s poetic in a sick way, the poverty that exists in our nation’s capital. YPT became that thing that I was going to contribute – I could come back home and make a difference in the lives of students.

When I think back to my first interview with David and Patrick, who had just started as Producing Artistic Director and Program Manager, it’s pretty embarrassing. I was very naïve and I may have actually said that I wanted to “change the world.” I was so earnest, but I think it worked for me because at that time David and Patrick were just starting their journey with YPT. Being over-eager simply made me a good fit for the new leadership.

I’ve worked closely with David and Patrick since that first interview, and this year I took on the title of Program Manager – Patrick’s role when I met him. Patrick has been a mentor to me, and YPT has been a place where I’ve honed my skills as an arts educator. I’m so grateful for this.

I’m sure you can guess that being Program Manager is not always a breeze. I love to brag about how creative our students are, and what amazing writers they are, which is very true. What I don’t always love to talk about are the struggles that we as teaching artists confront in the classroom. I’ve worked with groups of students that were challenging for any number of reasons: students who were struggling to learn English, students who were coping with serious problems in their personal lives, and sometimes simply a group with tough social dynamics. These experiences are always rewarding in the end. These are the students that force you to fight for what you want – something we tell them makes a good character.

I said to my students just the other day, “You may not care about this, but that’s tough. You’re going to do it. Because I care too much about you to let you give up.” I’ve found that when you invest in students in that way they never disappoint you.

Nicole
Program Manager

YPT Goes on a Field Trip

On Thursday, November 4th, we took two hundred twenty-eight students to see Ameriville, the new play by performance ensemble UNIVERSES, at Round House Theatre.

Yeah. TWO HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT STUDENTS. It took a lot of work to get all of them from school to the theater and back again, but it was totally worth it. Field trips are one of my favorite things to do at YPT. It’s always an eye-opening experience for students to see professional theater, but the best part is that it creates renewed investment in their own plays.

The two hundred twenty-eight students are eleventh graders at Bell Multicultural High School. They’re right in the middle of our In-School Playwriting Program, in fact the second drafts of their plays were due just one week after the trip. Bell is one of our favorite schools – we’ve been there for fifteen years, since the beginning of YPT.

Ameriville promised to be a perfect fit for our Bell students. The play fuses jazz, Gospel and hip-hop with storytelling. At Bell, we’ve found that many of our students feel a strong connection to music. Over the years, when teaching artists have met with students who were struggling with their plays, we’ve often asked them to think about sound design. It’s almost foolproof – music provides a gateway into all kinds of artistic expression. Students identify a song that matters to them, and suddenly they realize that they do have something they want to say. So, yeah, a play with beat boxing in it? That was gonna go over well.

The morning of the trip was rainy and hectic. Teachers rushed to check students in and make sure they had permission to attend, and students ran onto the buses, trying to avoid getting wet. But when we finally got to the theater (on time!) everyone’s mood had brightened. A Round House staffer recognized the students from the stage: “We have Bell Multicultural High School here!” and the whole house erupted in loud cheering. Jennifer Restak, one of the eleventh grade English teachers, was overjoyed. “They DO have school spirit, they DO like school!”

The play was fantastic (you can read one review here), and I loved it, but I have to admit that I was also watching the students watch the play. They were definitely not a passive audience: they laughed loudly, clapped for the moments they especially liked, and occasionally responded with Ohhs and Ooohs. Kelly MacIsaac, Round House Education and Outreach Program Assistant, told me that our students were among the show’s best audiences, and that she could tell that the actors were feeding off their energy. “I’m so happy you’re here. These are the kids that need to see this show,” she said.

Back at school, I bumped into Patricio, one of the eleventh graders. I asked him how his play was going, to which he replied, “Okay. I have a lot to do. It’s just that the play gave me a lot of ideas.”

Big thanks to the whole eleventh grade English team at Bell, our wonderful volunteer chaperones, the incredible Round House staff, and of course, UNIVERSES for making this trip happen.

Nicole
Program Manager

YPTimeMachine…

As we count down to YPT’s big fifteenth birthday celebration next week (Come share birthday cake with us at the Express Tour Showcase, November 3-6!), we would like to take you on a journey into the past – all the way back to 1995, the very first year of Young Playwrights’ Theater.

In 1995 Karen Zacarias returned home to Washington, DC with an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University and a desire to use her art to make a difference in her community. She began volunteering her time providing free playwriting workshops to students at Bell Multicultural High School and Fillmore Arts Center. By 1997, Karen’s workshops were so successful that she incorporated Young Playwrights’ Theater as a nonprofit organization, employing a full-time staff and teaching playwriting and theater arts at schools and community centers throughout DC. Fifteen years later, in 2010, YPT is a nationally recognized theater education company, serving 1,000 students annually throughout the Washington, DC region.

1995 was quite a year. The cost of a gallon of gas was $1.09, the Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress, Brave Heart won the Academy Award for Best Picture, O.J. Simpson was found innocent, POGs were voted most popular toy, Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill was Album of the Year, Jerry Garcia died, and the Atlanta Braves won the World Series. Over the next week, YPT will take you back in time to 1995, celebrating the good, the bad, the inspiring and the just-plain-hilarious of the early ‘90s.

To kick things off, we are pleased to present some juicy gems from the personal history of YPT’s staff. You saw it here first, folks – the fifteen-year-old professional biographies of YPT’s current company members…

David Snider, Producing Artistic Director and CEO
In 1995, David is a professional actor in New York, having just finished a season Off-Broadway with the Jean Cocteau Repertory, including The Cherry Orchard, Hamlet, The Country Wife and the US premier of Napoli Milionaria. Recently chosen by legendary producer Rosemarie Tischler to be in the inaugural class of the Shakespeare Lab at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, David is spending the summer training with Christopher Walken, F. Murray Abraham, Bill Irwin and Irene Worth, among others. He’s praised in an article written by a new writer on theatre for the New York Times, Peter Marks. He hopes to attend the NYU Graduate Acting Program next year. He often temps to pay the bills, spending his days photocopying and faxing – and dreaming of the days when he’ll do something more meaningful with his life. Whenever possible, he tries to look busy – while getting paid to read Shakespeare at his desk.  He’s quickly realizing that he really wants to be in charge.

Patrick Torres, Associate Artistic Director
In 1995, Patrick is busy managing all of his futile crushes and dreaming of getting out of Odessa, Texas. He is proud of his decision to boycott prom and is looking forward to college where people see theater as a valid art form and the ratio of females to males is 5 to 1. To this day he remains a dreamer.

 

 

Brigitte Pribnow Moore, Development Director
In 1995, Brigitte lives in Connecticut with her mom, two brothers, a dog, two cats, two gerbils, a rabbit, and a hermit crab named Dennis Nedry. An over-eager seventh grader, Brigitte recently voluntarily turned in an unassigned book report on Les Miserables (the unabridged version). She dreams of participating in the eighth grade field trip to Washington, DC, where she hopes to visit the love of her life, Fox Mulder, in the basement of the FBI building.

Nicole Jost, Program Manager
In 1995, Nicole is a student at Janney Elementary School in Washington, DC. She enjoys spending recess sharing secrets with her best friend, a.k.a. “dishing up stuff.” She is a feminist and a semi-vegetarian, and her favorite food is anything made out of chocolate. Her greatest wish is to be 17, when she knows she will have a cute boyfriend and have figured out her whole life.

Raina Fox, Community Engagement Associate
In 1995, Raina enjoys climbing trees, being out in the Portland rain, making crafts, camping, and putting on plays with her friends and siblings. She is currently working on her first screenplay, based on the board game “Candyland” and featuring several original songs never to be released. An avid reader and artist, Raina is honing her creative skills to become a children’s book author/illustrator when she gets older. Her favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time, which she reads under her desk during math class, knowing that ultimately this knowledge will prove far more useful than multiplication tables. She is correct.

Liza Harbison, Communications and Graphic Design Assistant
In 1995, Liza is hard at work learning cursive after a successful education in coloring inside the lines. She enjoys rollerblading, playing Oregon Trail and making forts out of blankets and chairs. Liza hopes to one day own 50 dogs and work with orangutans. Not much will change.

 

 

 

Alison Beyrle, Development Assistant
In 1995, Alison has just begun third grade at Janney Elementary School.  She is involved in activities such as soccer and Brownies, and recent accomplishments include selling enough Girl Scout cookies to earn a t-shirt and writing a story with chapters in her class writing workshop.  In her free time Alison enjoys reading, especially Babysitters Club books, writing, soccer, drawing, watching Legends of the Hidden Temple on Nickelodeon, and baking with her E-Z Bake Oven.  Next up, Alison will be moving to the Czech Republic thanks to her parents, who work for the Foreign Service.  She writes them an angry letter protesting this move, but will probably end up appreciating it years later.

Laurie Ascoli, Program Assistant
In 1995, Laurie lives in Rhode Island with her parents, big brother and new kitten, Casey.  She dreams of being an author one day and has already received two awards for her novella “The Journal of a Stuffed Pig” as well as for the “Just Say No” play she wrote for her DARE class and performed at an assembly.  In her spare time, she enjoys reading the Babysitters’ Club series, watching TGIF, playing Donkey Kong Country on Super Nintendo, and pretending to be Harriet the Spy.  She is delighted to announce that she will be making her stage debut in the fall as Melinda in Inherit the Wind, performed by the Middletown High School drama club and directed by her dad.

Feeling brave? We dare you to send us your photos and memories from 1995 (Email to bmoore@yptdc.org!). The best submissions will be displayed in the lobby on the opening night of the Express Tour Showcase, on November 6.

Brigitte
Development Director

Responsibility

A few months ago I was tapped to be the Lead Artist for YPT’s Special Project with Fannie Mae’s Help the Homeless Program. YPT would partner with five schools and five community organizations to conduct workshops exploring issues of homelessness. The participants would create original writing exploring the topic and also engage in group discussion. My role would be to turn all of this material into a play.

This is a very different kind of playwriting than the kind we usually teach our students. It’s not what most people think of when they hear the word “playwright.” For me, being a playwright in a collaborative process begins with the admission that I do not know everything. (I am a somewhat notorious control freak, so this is harder than you might think!) That admission is what allows me to receive the gift of inspiration, stories, writing, and ideas from others. I got to pull from the memories and thoughts of so many when I cobbled this play together. Collaboration made it that much more rich.

I spent a lot of time at home listening to the audio recording of these workshops. Many of the people who participated had direct experience with homelessness, and the stories they told are compelling and heartbreaking. I was humbled by the generosity these men and women showed by sharing their lives with us. I became overwhelmed by a sense of responsibility to them.

This responsibility made me more creative. I used not only direct quotes, but questions, concepts, and ways of communicating. I listened to YPT Associate Artistic Director Patrick Torres ask, “Why would someone not want to help the homeless?” The reasons suggested by the participants became a character. The text spoken by this character is original, but his way of thinking and seeing the world were created in the workshops. The play reflects the people we met through this process in myriad ways.

The play, The Good Neighbor, will be performed as part of the Express Tour. The performance itself will also be an act of collaboration. You will have the opportunity to contribute your voice to the conversation. I hope you do.

                              

Nicole
Program Manager