In the past fourteen years YPT has:

• received the Mayor’s Arts Award for Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education;
  
  
• reached over 5,000 students with free, in-depth playwriting and literacy workshops led by professional Washington playwrights;
  
  
• professionally produced over 110 plays written by DC public elementary, middle and high school students;
  
  
• performed for more than 50,000 people at theaters, schools, community centers, senior wellness centers and juvenile detention centers in all 8 wards of DC as well as Maryland and Virginia;
  
  
• given over 30,000 people their first theatrical experience;
  
  
• employed over 300 Washington artists through the program’s readings, performances and workshops;
  
  
• and received national and international recognition through awards, educational grants and press for our dynamic and effective programming.

• In 2008, YPT Producing Artistic Director David Snider was thrilled to be invited to help craft the new DC Standards for Arts Education, and to write the introduction to the official Theater Standards.  David also ensured the adoption of these standards by testifying before the DC State Superintendent and School Board. To date YPT is one of the only organizations successfully implementing these standards, in all of its lesson plans and curricula. 
   
• YPT is excited to sustain our current, expanded level of programming during the 2009-2010 school year, serving an estimated 800 elementary, middle and high school students with in-school and after-school theater arts workshops throughout DC, Maryland and Virginia. In addition to continuing established programming at Bell Multicultural High School, Woodrow Wilson High School, Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School, Capital City Public Charter Middle School, Plummer Elementary School, and Bancroft Elementary School, YPT plans to expand our long-term, in-depth partnerships, providing programming at the middle schools of Maya Angelou Public Charter School, Jubilee Youth Services, Washington Latin Public Charter School, and Kelly Miller Middle School. 
   
• In spring 2009, YPT was excited to provide our In-School Playwriting Program at Oak Hill Juvenile Detention Center, working with incarcerated young people at See Forever Academy to create an original play about the DC Juvenile Justice System (both middle and high school ages). This inspiring piece, entitled Choosing Change, will tour throughout DC, Maryland and Virginia as part of YPT’s Express Tour in April and May, 2009. YPT plans to continue our successful partnership with See Forever Academy in the coming school year.
   
• Additionally, YPT will continue to provide onsite OST programming for middle and high school students through our Young Playwrights’ Workshop, which serves as a home for students to explore their creativity and enhance their literacy during after-school hours. In the coming school year, approximately 35-40 middle and high school students will be selected to participate in YPT’s Young Playwrights’ Workshop through an application and interview process. Through a variety of workshops and field trips, Workshop students explore theater as a craft and a profession and learn how they can participate in professional theater throughout Washington, DC as audience members and artists. With support from the England Family Foundation in the coming year, the Workshop will allow YPT to deepen the interaction we have with our students, providing new opportunties for past and current students to develop their ability to express themselves and engage the world around them through the art of theater
   
• Throughout 2008-2009, the YPT staff worked closely with outside evaluator Barry Oreck, finalizing and piloting specific playwriting and theater arts curricula for elementary, middle and high school level students at school sites throughout DC, and finalizing and piloting assessment tools aimed at further evaluating and improving existing curricula. 
   
• Written literacy evaluations and self-assessments will be conducted during initial and final workshop visits at all 2009-20010 program sites. Assessment results will be judged via a specific rubric developed by YPT’s outside evaluator, faculty and staff, aimed at showing the changes in students’ literacy, their abilities with language and addressing the new DCPS English Language Arts Standards, as well as measurable changes in attitude/engagement in their own education. 

•  YPT’s expanding programs and productions are attracting new national partnerships and opportunities to showcase the talents and voices of DC’s inner-city youth for a national audience. In March 2008, the Kennedy Center and the White House produced the world premiere of Chasing George Washington: A White House Adventure, an original play written by middle school students in Columbia Heights, showcasing the work of YPT and DC students as a national model for excellence in arts education. Chasing George Washington, which is slated for a national tour in 2009, was recently featured on ABC World News with Charles Gibson. In spring 2009, YPT was proud to receive its first Helen Hayes Award nomination for this exciting production. 
   
• Since 2005, the Smithsonian Institution has commissioned YPT three times to create original plays with DC students.   On April 27, 2009, the YPT piece My Dream, Marian’s Dream will help open the new theatre at the American History Museum, hosted by the African-American History Museum, as part of the 70^th anniversary celebration of Ms. Anderson’s performance at the Lincoln Memorial. 
   
• Realizing that engaging youth through the art of playwriting has become a common approach in areas throughout the country, YPT is in the midst of establishing a new National Young Playwrights Network, towards the piloting of a National Young Playwrights Festival in Washington in summer 2010, hosted by YPT in Washington, DC. This National Young Playwrights Network now includes YPT and Philadelphia Young Playwrights as well as Young Playwrights Inc., 52^nd St. Project, the Castillo Theatre and Manhattan Class Company in New York City. David Snider and these network members have been invited to present on their work at the Theatre Communications Group national conference in Baltimore in June 2009.
   
• On April 6^th, 2009, YPT will present our first annual Giving Voice Award to our founder, Karen Zacarias, on the opening night of the New Play Festival. YPT is excited to establish this award to honor extraordinary individuals like Karen, those who inspire and empower others to realize their potential as individuals and artists.

Throughout 2009-2010:

• YPT will provide expanded performance opportunities for students, continuing our partnership with GALA Hispanic Theatre to present four New Writers Now! reading events and three performances of our city-wide New Play Festival.
  
  
• YPT will also provide Express Tour performances of student-written work throughout the year at a variety of venues in DC, Maryland and Virginia.
  
  
• Throughout our 2009-2010 Season of performances, YPT expects to reach approximately 6,000 audience members. Approximately 85% of these audience members will include underserved students and their families. 
  
  
• All YPT performances are typically accompanied by post-show discussions, allowing the audience to dialogue with the artists and young playwrights about the issues of each play.

Looking for details about a specific production or project? Visit our Production History page by clicking here.