PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, February 6, 2013 CONTACT: Kelundra Smith, Public Relations Manager 315-443-8603 or kdsmit04@syr.edu
Submissions due February 13 for Syracuse Stage’s 15th annual Young Playwright’s Festival Syracuse Stage invites Central New York high school students to write original, tenminute plays and other performance pieces for entry into the annual Young Playwrights Festival Contest. The Young Playwright’s Festival is sponsored in part by Lockheed Martin Employees Federated Fund, with additional support from: Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation, Tompkins Financial Advisors and Wegmans. This year’s theme is “Words, Words, Words,” derived from the stage play by David Ives with the same title. “[The play] is about three monkeys being watched by a research team,” Lauren Unbekant, Syracuse Stage’s director of educational outreach said. “And eventually they’re convinced one of the monkeys will end up writing Shakespeare. It’s about words. That play comes from a ten-minute play collection, and the image of that play was fun and funny.” A panel of theatrical and literary professionals will evaluate each student's play. Semifinalists will be invited to a writing workshop at Syracuse Stage, where their plays will be read and critiqued. “The ten minute play forces the playwright to get to the core of the conflict, the story, which can be quite exciting,” Unbekant said. 1