PLAYMAKING

Our last Playmaking performance was on:
Thursday, May 28, 2009.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company annually presents PLAYMAKING (formerly The Art of Playmaking), an ambitious program to bring the power of playwriting to over 100 young people yearly in Washington, DC. PLAYMAKING is now in its 11th year as part of Woolly Mammoth’s Education & Outreach programming.

Over the course of a semester, students from DC public schools receive professional instruction in writing for the stage. Through teaching the fundamentals of playwriting, the students learn lessons about self-esteem, self-discipline, creativity, communication, reading skills and teamwork.  The class culminates in a production of the students’ plays at Woolly Mammoth and at the Playmaking Associates’ school with professional actors.  

Woolly Mammoth brings PLAYMAKING to DC youth through partnerships with three outstanding institutions.  Each year since the fall of 2007, we have partnered with The SEED School of Washington, DC, an innovative public charter school in Anacostia.  In the fall each year, we also work with the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, the only DC public high school that provides professional arts training and college preparation to talented DC public high school students.  Every spring, Woolly partners with Metro TeenAIDS, a community health organization dedicated to supporting young people in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

This semester, Playmaking is returning to SEED, and starting up at Duke Ellington School of the Arts. In the spring of 2009, Playmaking will resume once again at the SEED School and Metro TeenAIDS.

"PLAYMAKING really gives young people an artistic voice,” says Education Director Louise Andrews. “The tremendous insight and creativity of these plays are the reason we continue to work with the incredibly talented students in DC. We want to reach as many young people as possible with the power of theater and playwriting.”

Contributors

Generous support for PLAYMAKING has been provided by:

The Anthony Lucas-Spindletop Foundation
The Corina Higginson Trust
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities
The John Edward Fowler Foundation
The Max & Victoria Dreyfus Foundation
The Susana A. & Donald P. Babson Charitable Foundation
The Weissberg Foundation
Anonymous

Mitchell Hébert in The Gigli Concert (2006)

Sarah Marshall in The Mineola Twins (2003)