With an outstanding roster of directors, The Playwrights Project presents the 22nd annual Plays by Young Playwrights, which is hosted by The Old Globe for the 14th time. Professional productions of winning scripts from the annual California Young Playwrights Contest are produced in the Cassius Carter Centre Stage Jan. 11-21, 2007. Four are fully staged; three receive readings.
The staged productions are “The Courier” by 18-year-old John Glouchevitz of Harvard Westlake High School in Los Angeles; “Elevated” by 15-year-old Ariel Cowell of University City High School; “Aftermath of Cassidy Joan” by 17-year-old Katherine Quinn of High Tech High School, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, one of the city’s most exciting young directors; and “Stage Directions” by 17-year-old Thomas Hodges of Scripps Ranch High School, directed by Ruff Yeager, himself a much-admired playwright and a fine, sensitive director.
Staged by stage and screen writer Stephen Metcalfe of La Jolla, “The Courier” concerns 19-year-old Billy West, an injured WWII soldier whose post-battlefield, stateside task is to deliver, along with an older, more experienced soldier, official notification and spoken words of condolence to the families of soldiers killed in the war.
Metcalfe is perfectly suited to direct such a script. He is the author of the touching Vietnam War drama, “Strange Snow,” produced by the Old Globe and widely seen regionally. Metcalfe wrote his own screenplay of the work, which came out titled “Jackknife,” in which Robert De Niro starred as a veteran affected with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Cowell’s “Elevated” concerns an unhappy young woman in a dead-end though high-paid job. Despondent, she receives words of wisdom and encouragement from the elevator operator in her Manhattan high-rise. George Ye of Cygnet Theatre stages the uplifting (pun intended) work.
“Stage Directions” concerns a young gay man, trying to make sense of love. “The Aftermath of Cassidy Joan” revolves around a lonely teen reeling from her parents’ divorce.
Directed by actor/director David Tierney, formerly of Sledgehammer Theatre, plays to be read are “Once Upon a Muffin” by 11- and 12-year-old Christine Li and Snow Zhu of Mesa Verde Middle School; “Rain, Rain, Go Away” by 14-year-old Dana D. Walker Jr. of Hidden Valley Middle School; and “The Exploits of Crusher, Mighty Amazonian King” by 10-year-old Nachiketa Baru of Solana Pacific Elementary School.
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Tickets (not on sale at Globe Box Office) range in price from $50 (opening nights Friday, Jan. 12 or Saturday, Jan. 13, or $80 for both, including receptions) to $15 for adults, $12 seniors/students/military and $10 for groups of 10 or more.
For information, schedule of plays and tickets, visit www.playwrightsproject.com or call (619) 239-8222.