When:
January 8 – 25
Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays @ 7:30 pm
Saturdays at 2:00 pm
Where:
Courtyard Theatre
Getz Theater Center
Columbia College
72 E. 11th St.
Chicago, IL
It happens every spring: Chicago Public School students submit one-act plays for Pegasus Theatre Chicago’s Young Playwrights Festival. This month, theatergoers can see a professionally produced program of three short plays culled from nearly 500 submissions.
For 33 years, Pegasus has challenged CPS high school students to translate their life experiences and imaginations through its in-school playwriting program. Ilesa Duncan took over the Young Playwrights Festival in 2004 and became Pegasus’ Artistic Director in 2012. Her directing work has been seen around town for years – at Congo Square, 16th Street Theater, ETA Creative Arts, Chicago Dramatists, Rivendell, Goodman, Victory Gardens, Lifeline and beyond.
Midway through the rehearsal process of plays by Angelina Davila, Reba Brennan and Henry Williams, Ilesa Duncan (ID) took time to reflect on YPF for Picture This Post(PTP) readers.
(PTP) Only a few of the students who submit to YPF will become professional scriptwriters. For the rest, what lifelong skills do they learn from writing a play?
(ID) Pegasus' YPF In-School program promotes not only playwriting, language arts, literacy and writing skills, students learn critical thinking and self-confidence, along with self-assessment, positive peer critique and leadership development. YPF encourages students to explore their histories, research their communities and mine their personal journeys in order to write dynamic one-act plays that they will submit to the annual competition. Playwright instructors will start with monologues and scenes, but submissions must be full one-act plays, not scenes, in order to make it to the final rounds of YPF.
What do you enjoy most about producing the Festival?
One of my favorite things is seeing an igniting spark that students get in the final round when they get invited to a revision writing workshop. During production, it's when they see the magic of theatre take their ideas and bring them to life onstage.
What do you dread most about producing the Festival?
I'm always struck that there's not enough resources for the production. I wish we could select more plays to produce have more opportunities to develop young, new artists works in process, encourage more youth to continue writing. Mostly, it's frustrating that more adults (including critics) don't understand the value of this annual production -- it's not just for ‘kids.‘ These are works written by Young Playwrights for sure, but who wouldn't want to see what the youth -- our next generation -- are wondering, thinking and writing about? Who wouldn't want to connect to their ideas and how the professional artists (actors, directors, designers, etc.) are apprenticing them?
Since you took over YPF in 2006, have you seen changes in the style or content of submissions?
What content or attitudes do you find the most troubling in the submitted plays?
Over the past fifteen years, there are many themes, ideas that are troubling. They usually have to do with people's inhumanity to one another, intolerance, fear and ignorance.
What content or attitudes do you find the most uplifting?
This year, the students have written plays that address self-determination and hope in the face of betrayal; and that is always uplifting.
What can theatergoers look forward to in the Festival?
They can look forward to three different one-act plays from three different perspectives that explore depression, homophobia, intolerance, survival, humor, dysfunction, friendship, the fantastical, joy and hope.
PUBLIC IN PRIVATE by Angelina Davila - Taft High School
Lucie is struggling to get into an art college, but is sidetracked by her brother’s problems and her mother’s lack of support. Directed by Juan Ramirez
COBALT by Reba Brennan - Senn High School
Vee, a shy 18-year old, seeks solace and adventure on a friend’s couch as an escape from family dysfunction. Directed by Ilesa Duncan
CLAUSE 42 by Henry Williams - Lane Tech Academy
George dies and is wrongly sent to the afterlife of a weird cult-like religion and is faced with the prospect of being judged by their ridiculous rules. Directed by Jason Fleece
Tickets:
$30 regular, $25 seniors, $18 students
For full-priced tickets and ticket availability visit Pegasus Theatre Chicago or by phone at 773.878.8864
Photos by Anthony Robert La Penna
About the Author
Susan Lieberman is a Jeff-winning playwright, journalist, teacher and script consultant who commits most of her waking hours to Chicago theatre. Her radio drama In the Shadows aired on BBC Radio 4 last season.
Editor's Note: Click here to find more Picture This Post reviews by Susan Lieberman
