Fri 6/5 – Sun 6/7
Create. Connect. Love. Respect. That’s the gist of the Marilyn Bianchi Kids’ Playwriting Festival (MBKPF), a program of Dobama Theatre. Now in its 37th year, the MBKPF highlights youthful insight and creativity through playwriting.
It goes like this: Cuyahoga County kids in grades 1 – 12 — whether homeschooled or attending a public, private or charter school — write their own 100% original plays and submit them to MBKPF. Judges read through the hundreds of submissions and pick a few standouts to be turned into fully produced theater productions complete with actors and props, which are presented at the festival — to the delight of all.
“The Marilyn Bianchi Kids’ Playwriting Festival is the oldest Young Playwrights Festival in the United States, founded in 1979,” says MBKPF producer Jonathan Wilhelm. “Stephen Sondheim founded Young Playwrights in New York City two years later. Today, there are literally hundreds of festivals performing plays works written by children, teenagers and young adults.
“The Festival was started as a way to honor the memory of Marilyn Bianchi, wife of Dobama founder Don Bianchi who died of breast cancer in July of 1977.”
According to Linda Bianchi, Marilyn’s daughter, “Marilyn was a wife and mom, and she had three children. She also was an actor and director and writer — and most important to her, a teacher. She loved kids — from tots to teens, and she also knew that grown-ups had to play and be silly too.
“She lived before people used computers, before cell phones, before you could post messages and pictures online. She would be really surprised at what kids can do now! And she’d also want to make sure that kids still used their imaginations, that they still created plays and music and art, and that they still looked each other in the eyes and talked and laughed and loved together.
“And so this festival, now in its 37th year, is called the Marilyn Bianchi Kids Playwriting Festival, so she can remind us to keep creating, and to pay attention to each other in this wonderful world we live in.”
All plays are pure products of a child’s imagination. Nothing is based on a movie, video game or book. And, if you know kids, you know their creativity flows with ease. Even plays that didn’t make the cut are still “winners.” All entrants receive this note for their efforts:
“Not everyone can say they wrote a play, but you can! You took the time and effort to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and created characters, situation and action. You posed questions, evoked feelings, and created something that had never existed before. Be proud of yourself!”
The MBKPF kicks off on Friday with a benefit performance ($25) and continues with free public performances on Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30pm and Sunday at 7:30pm. This is a great way to expose young ones to theater but it’s even entertaining if you’re sans children.
Says Wilhelm, “The plays at the festival are fully produced. These are not staged reading. There are sound effects, music and set pieces (including a rocket ship and a gas station pump.) The young actors who are performing in ‘The Hot Dog Attack’ by Camden Burks made their own Evil Hot Dog Machine and Jet Packs out of cardboard, duct tape and magic markers! At Kids’ Fest, it’s all about kids using their imaginations and being creative.
“There are eleven shows being produced at this year’s Kids’ Fest which were selected from nearly 300 entries. There are 10 directors and almost 40 actors (children, teenagers and adults). Every play submitted in read by three separate judges who rate each play on originality and creativity. We don’t care about spelling, but about what the playwright is expressing. Plays in this years’ festival are funny, sad and scary. One takes play on the moon, one takes place during the Great Depression of the 1930’s and one takes place during the American Revolution.”
He adds, “The festival is a great way to introduce children to the theater and for kids to see how other kids’ express themselves through both writing and acting. It’s a time-honored tradition and you don’t have to have children in order to attend!”
Go see what these bright kids have to say — you won’t be disappointed.
Cool Cleveland correspondent Sarah Valek studied art and writing at Ithaca College. After graduation, she came back to Cle and served two years as an AmeriCorps*VISTA with the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless. She can be found on all sides of the city in pursuit of homeschooling activities for her son and the perfect soy latte. Contact her at CoolEditor@CoolCleveland.com or via Twitter.
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