Palm Springs Young Playwrights Festival Announces2023 Fifth Annual Festival Winning Submissions
NEWS RELEASE Contact: O’Bayley Communications – Bob Bogard 760-464-0182 • bob@obayley.net PSYPF – David Youse 310/428-3368 • david@davidyouse.com
Palm Springs, CA – April 11, 2023: The Palm Springs Young Playwrights Festival (PSYPF) announced today that it selected three winning entries to be showcased in this year’s festival. PSYPF promotes and encourages theatrical creative writing to all elementary, middle, and high school students within Riverside County. Each year it produces an annual festival that showcases selected works from students with staged readings using professional actors and directors.
This year, PSYPF received a record 39 submissions. Each play was reviewed by a special committee who selected the 2023 winners, who will receive a mentorship to enhance their playwriting skills, a staged reading public performance of their play, and a $500 scholarship to help further their career in the arts.
The winning playwrights will now work with this year’s mentor, playwright, screenwriter, and actor Phinneas Kiyomura, who will provide professional guidance to the student playwrights and coach them through the entire process of finalizing their plays. The three staged readings will be performed at the Fifth Annual Palm Springs Young Playwrights Festival by seasoned professional actors.
The festival will take place at The Palm Springs Cultural Center on June 4, 2023 at 12 PM. Casting is underway and the selected performers will be announced later this year when tickets will be also become available. The event will be free to the public although reservations will be required through www.brownpapertickets.com.
2023 Winning Plays
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2023 Winning Plays 〰️
ART, written by Arlo Topete, age 18, from Valley View High School in Moreno Valley, CA. ART is a story about one's journey of finally being free. Through flashbacks, Art shares his life experiences and the people who shaped him, negatively or positively, on finally coming out as trans.
MANAGE, written by George Sandoval, age 17, from Valley View High School in Moreno Valley, CA. A doctor tries to help a patient manage his Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple distinct personalities) looking to find the epicenter of why it was developed. But is the doctor correct?
LOVE'S LABOUR'S MOTHS!, written by Xuan-Anh Ly Biggs, age 18, from Riverside Polytechnic High School. A second-time winner, Xuan-Anh previously won in 2021 for her play, THE HOMELESS RICH WOMAN AND THE PLAYWRIGHT. In this comedy, an actor's love for theater shines through as he auditions and jumps through hurdles to secure the role of Moth in a production of William Shakespeare's LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Will it help if the actor is an actual Moth?
“We were astounded by the record number of plays that were submitted this year,” said David Youse, Executive Director of the Festival.
“Submissions came from several grade levels and most of the participating school districts. It was challenging to select the three winning plays and we are delighted with the plays we chose. We look forward to working with the three winners and congratulate all the students who crafted their plays and chose to participate in the festival this year.”
Recently PSYPF partnered with The Riverside County Office of Education to expand its outreach to young playwrights to include not just the Coachella Valley, but all of Riverside County. The Festival works closely with Louisa Higgins, Visual and Performing Arts Administrator for Riverside County Office of Education, Chuck Yates, Founding Artistic Director of Coyote StageWorks, the Palm Springs Cultural Center, and PSYPF board members Marni Raab, Margarida De Brito and Desiree Clark.
PSYPF is funded by Harold Matzner, The Western Wind Foundation with Jeremy Hobbs, Gus Van Sant, Tom Valach, Jason Smith, Chuck Yates, Deborah Harmon, Mel and Dorothy Lefkowitz, Paul Reid and Thomas Hartnett, and David Williams and Tim Holmes.
PSYPF is a nonprofit organization. To lend support or review the mission statement, visit psypf.org/mission.
About PSYPF
The Palm Springs Young Playwrights Festival promotes and encourages creative writing - in the theatrical form - open to all students in the elementary, middle, and high school level within Riverside County, California. The Festival provides a scholarship to further education in the arts, mentorship, and a public reading to young playwrights of chosen plays. More information is available at psypf.com.