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| Express Tour
Showcase |
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Catch the tour!
YPT's Express Tour brings student plays to schools,
community centers and hospitals across the Washington,
DC area.
Complete with costumes, sets, sound and music, our
troupe of professional actors share the voice of a new
generation with thousands of audience members each year.
Catch the tour at our Public Showcase:
7:30 PM
Monday, April
14th
Admission is FREE!
For more about the Express Tour, including a
listing of plays, click here.
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| Photos from New Play Festival |
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The 2008 New Play Festival was a great success.
Theater J at the DCJCC was packed with students,
parents, teachers and members of the DC artistic
community who came to see the latest plays from YPT's In-School
Playwriting Program.
Photographer Liz Lynch captured the event. To
see more pictures from the New Play Festival click
here. |
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GERSON
BLANCO |
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| Promising
Playwright
At fourteen,
Gerson Blanco is a YPT veteran. His first play,
Renny vs.
Javier was produced as part of New
Writers Now! in 2007. His latest work,
The Black
Sheep was just featured in the 2008 New Play
Festival.
"I thought the
Festival would be like the first time," Gerson says,
"like just a small place. But then, when I saw how big
it was and all the people arrived I got kind of
scared. But
then, when I got up on stage, I don't feel nothing. I
was confident," Gerson says, smiling broadly. He smiles too as
he remembers the actors. "That last guy!
He was so funny. His face was so funny," Gerson grins,
recalling Cesar Guadamuz's performance.
Gerson's parents
had to work the night of the Festival but they're very
proud of his work.
"Ellos bromean conmigo," he says moving easily
between Spanish and English "they joke and say that
since YPT paid me I have to start helping to pay the
rent." He
adds that he did turn his $50 royalty over to his
mother, "if I had it I'd spend it all at one time."
The next play he's conceived deals with gang
violence.
It features a gang member who takes in a homeless
boy and cares for him against the wishes of his
crew. Gerson
encounters gang members each day when he walks between
his school and the bus stop.
He says, "I wear my black
jacket and my black hat. I don't think. I don't look. I
don't look in the eyes."
He's less guarded when talking about his creative
endeavors. He makes steady eye contact and
smiles as he says "Every night I think about how I can
make a movie." His grandmother
has suggested that he write about his family's journey
from El Salvador.
She is still in El Salvador and Gerson talks with
her on the phone each Saturday. It has
been four years since they've seen each other and Gerson
thinks about one day returning to El Salvador, seeing
his grandmother and playing Trompo and Chibola.
Here he plays on
two soccer teams, one for his school, MacFarland Middle
School and another league called El Sol de America. He plays striker
or midfield.
Next year he will attend Bell Multicultural High
School, where he hopes to continue to work with YPT.
He advises other playwrights, "Try the best. The only thing
you need to worry about is the conflict, climax and
resolution."
He adds, "That's why I'm the one that goes with
YPT to present my play, because I was the only one in my
class who put a conflict, climax and resolution."
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| Our Thanks |
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Leadership support of the
Express tour is provided by the MARPAT Foundation.
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