While the national arts conversation increasingly focuses on the need for new and diverse artistic voices, one local theater company has been providing a unique platform for young artists for more than a decade.
For the 12th year, Touchstone Theatre in Bethlehem will present its Young Playwrights’ Festival. It will be held Saturday at Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center. The festival features five one-act plays and four select scenes written by local elementary, middle and high school students. The full evening includes a pre-show party and post-show gala reception in Lehigh’s Black Box Theatre.
The festival first began as the culminating experience for the students in Touchstone’s Young Playwrights’ Lab, an eight-week arts and literacy residency developed in conjunction with the Bethlehem Area School District using theater as a “Trojan Horse” to improve student attitudes toward writing and creative self-expression. At the completion of the lab, each student writes an original one-act play, which is submitted for festival consideration.
“It’s important for budding artists to see the full circle of their creative endeavors, and we wanted parents and others in the community to celebrate their creativity with us,” says Touchstone Managing Director Lisa Jordan.
Working with schools in Bethlehem and Allentown, and for the first time this year, Easton, the festival is not short of material. This year the Young Playwrights’ Lab generated about 100 plays for submission to the festival.