Shipley is proud to announce sixth grader Katherine Foulke’s play Kindness Is Like Soooo Two Hundred Years Ago has been selected by the Philadelphia Young Playwrights to be performed live on stage during the New Voices Festival at Temple University. Katherine, whose play was written during her fifth grade year at Shipley, is the first elementary school winner in over six years to have his/her play produced for the Festival.

 

The New Voices Festival features seven plays chosen from more than 700 submissions to the Young Playwrights’ Annual Playwriting Festival. Those seven plays are directed by theater professionals and performed by Temple undergraduate actors.

 

Shipley partners with the Philadelphia Young Playwrights to bring theater writing into the classroom. Last year, a teaching artist visited Shipley’s fifth grade once a week to facilitate lessons on writing, from giving a story idea detail and life to the importance of revision and feedback. At the end of the year, each student produced a play to submit to the Young Playwright’s Annual Playwriting Festival, which accepts submissions from students around the region.

 

This year, Shipley will be inviting the Philadelphia Young Playwrights into the fourth and fifth grade classrooms.

 

 

Congratulations, Katherine!