After-School Playwriting Program 

The After-School Playwriting Program develops students’ creative expression and collaboration by exploring theater as an ensemble.  

Community-Based Young Playwrights’ Theater conducts the After-School Playwriting Program at partner schools and community centers.
Ensemble Work Participants work together as a theater company to write monologues and scenes, and explore theater through games and the performance of work written by their peers. YPT Teaching Artists lead the workshops, supervised by Artistic Director Nicole Jost.
Culmination The end of each semester culminates with a community sharing of student work for students, friends, and families.

In October, 2010, YPT’s After-School Playwriting Program won the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, which was presented by First Lady Michelle Obama at a private White House ceremony on October 20.

Support for YPT's After-School Playwriting Program is provided by ANC 1C, Hattie M. Strong Foundation, and the Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs.

Interested in signing up? Middle school students can participate in the Tuesday afternoon playwriting workshops at Sitar Arts Center and high school students can join the Young Playwrights' Workshop. For information about other community-based after-school programs, contact us.

Recent partner sites for the After-School Playwriting Program include Kelly Miller Middle School, Lincoln Multicultural Middle School, Ferebee Hope Elementary School and MacFarland Middle School through the Project My Time Program, and Tubman Elementary School through a Proving What's Possible grant from DC Public Schools.

For more information on how to bring the After-School Playwriting Program to you school or center, contact Jared Shamberger at 202-387-9173 or jshamberger@yptdc.org.

In the 2012-2013 school year, Harriet Tubman Elementary School received a Proving What's Possible grant from DC Public Schools. With the grant, Tubman invited YPT to bring to life a year-long after-school program to increase literacy scores. SoJam, which combines storytelling, oration, journalism, art and media arts, has led to some amazing creations by these young artists and writers.