Touchstone Theatre presents its 21st \u201cYoung Playwrights\u2019 Festival,\u201d 3 p.m. May 17, Northeast Middle School, Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
The festival is a showcase of short plays written by elementary and middle school students that is presented in partnership with the Bethlehem Area School District.<\/p>\n
The festival is the culmination of Touchstone\u2019s Young Playwrights\u2019 Lab, an eight-week arts and literacy residency using theater to provide a platform for creative self-expression and encourage students to write.<\/p>\n
Touchstone facilitators use improvisation, writing exercises and collaborative critique. Each student writes an original one-act play which is considered for performance at the annual festival.<\/p>\n
The plays often include light-hearted elements like talking animals, space aliens, princesses and imaginary worlds. They explore universal themes of love, resilience, importance of family and bravery in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n
More than 150 plays were submitted from this year\u2019s program with four scripts chosen as finalists for fully-staged productions; three partially-produced semi-finalists; and six runners-up, each with a brief scene or dialogue performed onstage.<\/p>\n
The plays and scenes are directed by a member of Touchstone\u2019s ensemble along with guest directors Amy Putlock, theater director, Broughal Middle School, and Darah Donaher, Northampton Community College theater professor. The plays will be performed by Touchstone actors, community performers and students from area schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are thrilled to have given a platform to young, creative minds in the Lehigh Valley for over 20 years,\u201d says Mary Wright, Touchstone Education Director. \u201c\u2018The Young Playwrights\u2019 Festival is a culmination of students\u2019 hard work and passion for imagination, and we are honored to celebrate their artistic triumphs as a community by bringing their work to the stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finalists are \u201cRock, Scissors, And \u2026 \u201d by Keagen Frendt of Broughal Middle School, directed by Amber Charest, which looks at what happened when Paper is victorious over Rock;<\/p>\n
\u201cAdam Meets Eve\u201d by Sofia Hernandez of Freemansburg Elementary, directed by Amy Putlock, a twist on the meeting of the two beings that kick-started the human race;<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Last Three Days\u201d by Ben Harney of Nitschmann Middle School, directed by Darah Donaher, which asks how you would spend your time if you had three days left on Earth, and<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Dream\u201d by Zori Sawyer of Spring Garden Elementary, directed by Matt Prideaux, in which a young girl must thwart a powerful villain planning to crush the dreams of everyone on Earth.<\/p>\n
The semifinalists are \u201cThe IKEA is Gone but the Dragons are Not\u201d by Mia Sanchez Tejeda of Northeast Middle School, directed by Lisa Jordan; \u201cThe Queen of Charity\u201d by Julia Bombard of Farmersville Elementary, directed by Jordan, and \u201cMars\u201d by Julia Coyle of Lincoln Elementary, directed by Jordan.<\/p>\n
Runners-up are \u201cThe Wolf and Willow\u201d by Nicole Young-Rivera of William Penn Elementary; \u201cKatve\u2019s Adventures\u201d by Eva Williamson of James Buchanan Elementary: \u201cThe Bow Fiasco\u201d by Layla Lopez of Donegan Elementary; \u201cSassy Girl\u201d by Leslie Perez of Fountain Hill Elementary; \u201cA Dessert Mystery\u201d by Tyler Evans of Thomas Jefferson Elementary, and \u201cThe Pizza Place Killer\u201d by Zecheriah Broughton Jr. of Governor Wolfe Elementary. The runners-up are directed by Touchstone Artistic Director Jp Jordan.<\/p>\n
An award for excellence will be presented to \u201cThe Story of Zink\u201d by Nathaniel Strausser of Governor Wolfe Elementary.<\/p>\n
\u201c21th Annual Young Playwrights\u2019 Festival,\u201d Touchstone Theatre, 3 p.m. May 17, Northeast Middle School Theatre, 1170 Fernwood St., Bethlehem. 610-867-1689, https:\/\/touchstone.org\/<\/p>\n
\u201cCurtain Rises\u201d is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Touchstone Theatre presents its 21st \u201cYoung Playwrights\u2019 Festival,\u201d 3 p.m. May 17, Northeast Middle School, Bethlehem. The festival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-194133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}