Celebrating World Premiere of Five New Short Plays

Oct. 27, 2010 - PRLog -- On Thursday, November 11th at 5:00 PM, Woodland Elementary Charter School will present premieres of original short plays written by kids, about kids, for kids at the Young Voices With New Visions Short Play Festival produced by YVNV, Inc., a nonprofit organization.   The Woodland Ensemble Company drama club will again be the featured players in the 2nd annual YVNV Short Play Fest.  This year’s spotlight is on the work of 5 gifted elementary and middle school students from across metro Atlanta which include three Fulton County students, Giana Scerbo (1st Runner-up) and N’Kai Lewis (Silver Medal Winner), who are former Woodland Elementrary Charter School students, and Danielle Patterson (Bronze Medal Winner).  The other two young playwrights are Cobe Jackson and Jaiya Smith, both 5th graders and the Gold Medal Winners. They attend independent schools.

The goal of the YVNV play fest is to give emerging playwrights the opportunity to take their plays from the page to the stage for a clarifying look at how they can continue the play development process after the curtain comes down.  

This year the dramatic writing ranges from musical comedy to a post World War II snapshot of the characters after the story ends in Lowry’s book Number The Stars.  The students entered their plays into the YVNV “Write A Dream” Play Competition last January.  They went through a rigorous 10-week play development workshop with Pamela-Faith Jackson, a professional dramaturg and Tamara Beasley, a Talented and Gifted Certified Teacher and Math Coach from Bethune Elementary School.  Bethune  and Woodland served as Young Playwrights Unit sites where the students met to workshop their plays.  Dr. Ruth Baskerville and Dr. Gwendolyn Miller graciously opened their buildings for the YVNV playwriting initiative. The original student-written plays received a reading in the Spring, and their peers selected the most promising 6 works-in-progress.  In the final round of competition, the 6 scripts  were sent to YNVN adjudicators Sydne Mahone, Associate Professor, Theatre Arts, playwriting and dramatic literature, University of Iowa; Professor Susan Watson Turner, Lehman College (NYC), Professor Kimberly Harding, Florida A & M, as well as, Brenda Wilcox, Executive Vice President of the Southwest GA Film Commission.  

The YVNV artistic and production team is made up of dedicated parents, community volunteers, faculty, and staff including Coby Miller, who will make a special guest appearance in one of the plays.  Mr. Miller won an Olympic silver medal at the 2004 Athens Games as part of the American 4 x 100 metres relay team.  We are especially grateful to Mary Vanderhoek, who made it possible for Riverwood HS students, Casey Rosner and Marva Bagher to collaborate with the YVNV project.  These multi-talented actor/directors have devoted 2 days per week afterschool to stage two of the YVNV productions, and will also perform in one of the shows.

For more information please call:  770 551 5890                                          Tickets:  $4.00