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I really appreciate Playscripts and their work toward creating better theater and theater experiences for all. Jay Muldoon Theater Teacher, Fairfield, OH
General Information
The Blog
Oct 21, 2016
Why Age-Appropriate Roles for Teens Are Important, and How to Write Them
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In this guest blog post, playwright Jonathan Dorf discusses the importance of creating more opportunities for teens to play characters in which they can see (and find) themselves.

We’ve all seen it: a 17-year-old with a fake beard, hair sprayed gray, affecting a voice and some strange stoop or waddle walk. Or just completely ignoring it and playing a 50-year-old as if there’s no difference whatsoever. I get it. There are lots of great plays out there, plays that are important for young actors (and anyone else with an interest in theatre) to know. Whether that’s ...
Jul 1, 2016
Don Zolidis on the Top 10 Essentials of Teaching Playwriting
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So you want to teach playwriting, but where to start? In this guest blog post, playwright and former high school teacher Don Zolidis shares his advice on teaching playwriting to teenagers.

A lot of teachers I meet are a bit cautious when teaching playwriting. Most theater teachers learned about acting and directing in college, and very few of them really dove into the specifics of playwriting. The good news, however, is that playwriting is basically just acting on the page. If you can act, you can write. The great difference of course, is that when you’re writing ...
May 15, 2015
Advice for Playwrights: 10 Expert Tips for Marketing Your School Plays from Don Zolidis
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This article originally appeared on blog.donnahoke.com on May 13, 2015, and has been reposted with permission.

Today’s guest poster, Don Zolidis, has taught both middle school and high school, and is a former playwriting professor. Currently living in Texas with his wife and two children and working on a musical, Zolidis is originally from Wisconsin, and received his B.A. in English from Minnesota’s Carleton College and an MFA in Playwriting from the Actor’s Studio Program at the New School. His work has received numerous honors, including the Princess Grace ...
Jun 5, 2014
Merging Stage and Screen Made Easy
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Rock 'n' roll, I Love Lucy, and James Dean are just a few of the most iconic aspects of the '50s. But wise-cracking 12-year-old Rudy Pazinski who often finds himself questioning traditional family values and the Roman Catholic Church? Yes, it looks like there is room for him, too. Well, at least in the world of  playwright Tom Dudzick's semi-autobiographical series  Over the Tavern. And now in Over the Tavern: The TV Show, Dudzick revisits his favorite family in two one-act plays.


Were you involved with theatre as a ...
May 27, 2014
Why I Write Plays for High Schools
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“Why do you write plays for high schools?”  I am often asked by fans I was asked by the marketing department at Playscripts as a possible starting point for a blog entry. And to my legion of loyal readers Lane Bernes, Marketing Director at Playscripts and anyone else reading this blog entry I say, “Well it’s complicated, but I’ve broken my answer down in 5 easy categories (much like one of my desperately titled plays!).”
 1.  The Money.  Oh sweet lord the money.
 Most self-interested, greedy money mongers are going to tell you that the best way to make millions ...
Oct 22, 2012
Playscripts Award & Scholarship for High School Playwrights
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We are thrilled to announce the Playscripts Award & Scholarship as part of Writopia Lab’s Worldwide Plays Festival, an annual theater festival featuring the next generation of playwrights. This year, in addition to a production in New York City, high school juniors and seniors will have the chance to win our $2,500 college scholarship. (If you’re not a junior or senior you can still win a scholarship! David Letterman's production house, Worldwide Pants, is also giving out a $2,500 scholarship to the playwright who writes the funniest play of the 2013 festival.)

Aug 20, 2012
Why I write for teenagers: A manifesto/rant by Don Zolidis
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In the days when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, a play could be performed on Broadway and then make its way to the high schools of the world pretty quickly. And it would stay on that list forever. Think You Can’t Take it With You or The Crucible or Noises Off. Broadway used to do plays with large casts that everyone could enjoy.

Glancing at the current roster of Broadway shows, you get some idea of the challenge facing high school directors. There’s nothing there you could do in high school. Are you going to do a play with four characters in it? For ...
May 14, 2012
The Gifts You Give Away
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I received this email from a drama coach who had directed a production of one of my plays.

"During the performance last night, one of the audience members was laughing so loud, I thought he had been drinking (haha). He approached me after the play was over. It was a community member who lost his wife to cancer last fall, and his son, Casey, is an extra in the play. He said that since his wife had passed, he had been unable to laugh - until he saw your play. For a couple hours, he was able to forget everything and just laugh. He wanted to know who wrote it. He plans on ...
Feb 23, 2012
5 Questions for Writer, Syl Jones
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Syl Jones is the author of 60-plus plays, including Black No More, produced by the Guthrie Theater and Arena Stage and winner of the Kennedy Center Award for Best New Play of 1998. He is the only playwright to win the Mixed Blood Theater Versus America and the Penumbra Theater Cornerstone awards in the same year. He began his career as a journalist in Cincinnati, Ohio at the age of 14. In 1980, his historic interview with physicist William B. Shockley appeared in Playboy and has since been anthologized in The Best of The Playboy Interviews, Vol. II. Mr. ...
   
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