The Marin Young Playwrights Festival (MYPF) celebrates the work of teen playwrights and encourages a focus on playwriting in Bay Area high schools. Eight original ten-minute plays are performed by teens in an event at Marin Theatre Company. The play selected as the MYPF winner receives a staged reading with professional actors, open to the public at MTC.

This program complements MTC's playwriting competition for professional playwrights; the 2009/10 MYPF was held during the run of Sunlight, the winner of MTC's Sky Cooper New American Play Prize.

2009/10 Festival
On February 1 2010, eight teams of actors performed the eight plays selected as finalists in MTC's Lieberman Theatre. MTC's Artistic Staff selected one play to be performed in a staged reading with professional actors May 4 & 8, 2010 . The winning script for 2009/10 is Toby by Jasper Hirose, a senior at Terra Linda High.

Playwright Jasper Hirose (center) with actors Lily Jackson and Andy Deleon.

Finalists
Marin Theatre Company's Teen Advisory Board selected eight finalists from the thirty plays submitted by Marin high school students for the Marin Young Playwrights Festival.

Each submitted play was read by at least three members of the Teen Advisory Board, and the process was blinded -- the readers did not know the playwright's name or school. After the first round of voting and discussions, we determined that there were well more than eight plays that deserved to be finalists. To narrow it down to eight, and to ensure that no more than two finalists would be chosen from any one school, we read some plays aloud, went through several rounds of voting, and held a heated debate. Finally, a consensus was reached. Here are the finalists, in alphabetical order:

A Different Sort of Art by Gwen Hicks, Marin School of the Arts

A Locked Door by Chris Madera, Redwood High

A Love Hate Relationship by Lauren DeBiasio, Sam Maher, and Emelliano Salas, San Marin High

Death of a Barista by Sam Stecklow, Marin School of the Arts

I Did the Washing and the Tidying Up by Bonnie Kate Wolf, San Rafael High

Lost Play by Keira Sullivan, Redwood High

Mr. Goodyshins and His Numerous Dinner Guests Find A Murderer Under the Sea In Their Polka-Dot Submarine by Sander Lutz, Tamalpais High

Toby by Jasper Hirose, Terra Linda High

Performance of Finalists
The eight finalists are performed at MTC in the Marin Young Playwrights Festival. The cast for each play is either members of the Teen Advisory Board or students from the playwright's high school, as decided by the playwright. This event is open to the public. MTC's Artistic Staff serves as judges, and selects one winning script.

Staged Reading of Winning Script
The winning script will be presented as a staged reading with professional actors and a professional director at MTC May 4 & 8, in conjunction with MTC's New Works Series.