Friday, April 14, 2000
Playhouse commissions kids plays
BY JACKIE DEMALINE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Playhouse in the Park becomes one of a handful of regional theaters regularly commissioning new plays for children with a new multiyear grant from Lazarus Fund of the Federated Department Stores Foundation.
Playhouse will commission an original work from a nationally known playwright each of the next three years. The newly established Lazarus New Youth Play Prize will annually premiere at schools throughout the region, performed by the theater's Skilken/Brown Touring Company.
“There's a real dearth of quality plays for young people,” says Playhouse producing artistic director Ed Stern. “Plays that aren't patronizing, plays that make young people think, that move them, plays that have something to do with their lives. Those are the plays that make them fall in love with theater.
“We're about new voices and new audiences every step of the way, and this will be a major component of that. And the idea of being able to take on a project that will have a national impact is very exciting to me.”
Next season's winner is already in development. Youth Play Prize winner is Los-Angeles-based playwright Bernardo Solano, who is crafting a work about modern myth told from a young person's viewpoint.
In February he visited 19 area schools, conducting creative writing workshops and collecting students' thoughts in their own words for inclusion in the still untitled play. It will be produced in winter/spring 2001.
The Lazarus Fund separately funded Playhouse's first-ever commissioned play for young audiences, Elizabeth Wong's Boyd & Oskar which toured schools through early spring.
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