Philadelphia Young Playwrights Email Format
Performing ArtsPennsylvania, United States11-50 Employees
Philadelphia Young Playwrights is a Philadelphia-based arts education nonprofit founded in 1987 that aims to cultivate youth voices through playwriting. The organization collaborates with educators and professional artists to strengthen students' literacy and broad 21st-century skills, including communication, creativity, and collaboration, through a classroom-centered model. Most classroom placements occur in non-arts subjects such as English, Language Arts, History, and Social Studies, and in the 2017-2018 period the program provided over 2,200 hours of instruction across 92 classrooms. Its Annual Playwriting Festival invites more than 700 student submissions, which are read and commented on, with selected works developed in the Play Development Series for public performances alongside professional collaborators. The organization also produces dozens of new plays and monologues each year through partnerships with regional universities, theater companies, and cultural organizations, expanding opportunities to work beyond the classroom. In May 2023, Philadelphia Young Playwrights named LaNeshe Miller-White as Executive Director.