About Philadelphia Young Playwrights

Educating students for life

Philadelphia Young Playwrights is an intensive arts-education program that pairs a professional teaching artist with a classroom teacher. The two work together as an Artistic Team, guiding and supporting students in the process of writing a play. The program fosters student learning, exploring and succeeding.

• Up to 1,700 students are served directly at as many as 50 program sites each year.
• More than 60 prominent playwrights and many other professional theatre artists have served as teaching artists over the years.
• Nearly all Philadelphia’s professional and university theatre companies regularly participate by developing and co-producing performances of students’ plays.
• More than 60,000 students have seen peers’ work produced in class or by professionals since 1987.
• As many as 1,000 students each year submit their plays to Young Playwrights’ Annual Playwriting Festival.
• 60 educators, writers, theatre artists, parents and former Young Playwrights students form the Literary Committee. They read and and provide individualized written feedback for each student script submitted to the Annual Playwriting Festival.
• 760 scripts were read by the Literary Committee in 2009.
• VIEW OR DOWNLOAD our most recent newsletters below!

Watch the WHYY feature on the Philadelphia Young Playwrights Experience.