INDIANA UNIVERSITY PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS

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NATIONAL PLAYWRIGHT COMPETITION WINNERS TURN TO KIDS AS THEY FINE-TUNE WORKS AIMED AT YOUNG AUDIENCES

INDIANAPOLIS - Local elementary and middle school age students are serving as literary critics for national playwrights in town to fine-tune award-winning theater productions written for young audiences.

Writers who are developing scripts as winners of the 2001 Bonderman IUPUI National Youth Theatre Playwright Symposium playwright competition on Thursday (May 3) will visit classrooms at Elwood Middle and Westfield Middle schools, and IPS School 55 and School 67.

Selected teachers and students have studied the scripts in class and on last Sunday attended staged readings held at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis. During their campus visits, the playwrights will conduct workshops during which the children will discuss the plays and their perceptions of them.

The children will attend the final staged readings of the plays at the Indiana Repertory Theatre and then meet privately with the playwrights to review the play's development and outline what work still needs to be done.

Playwrights, producers, directors, publishers and educators convene at the Bonderman symposium held biennially to address issues central to the creators and the creation of good plays for young people. This year's symposium takes place Thursday through Sunday, May 3 to 6, at the Indiana Repertory Theatre and the Hampton Inn Hotel in downtown Indianapolis.

Interaction between the playwrights and local children is one part of a weeklong workshop held prior to the Bonderman Symposium.

This year's playwriting competition had 71 entries. The winning plays are:

"In the Garden of the Selfish Giant," written by Sandra Fenichel Asher of Missouri, tells of 11-year-old Maggie's summer visit with her mom to the mother's childhood home to be with the child's dying grandmother - the selfish giant. When Maggie goes into a "bad mood" because of the change in her summer plans, a hospice worker and a neighborhood girl help her work through it.

"Threadheads," written by Illinois playwright Dean Corrin, is a story about two children who must work 14-hour days spinning and spooling threads for meager wages in the textile mill where their mother also works. The siblings eventually join the Mother Jones' crusade to champion for their rights.

"Panadero's Dream" (formerly "Two Donuts"), written by Jose Gonzalez of California, is a fantasy story about a little boy named Pedito who is magically transported to Cuatemala, a fantastical country where he has been summoned to help save the country from the evil dictator Commandante Boots, a nasty pair of military boots.

"Tortilla Moon," written by Margaret Larlham of California, is a modern fable in which the difficulties faced by a neighborhood appear to be linked to the malevolence of an ancient golden statue and the demands of a greedy landlord. A young girl, Rosa, and her friend, Underdog, set out on a journey to unravel the mystery and bring relief to the community.

"Puzzles," written by John Newman of Utah, is the story of a family crisis that forces a mother and her young son to return to the mother's home. There she struggles to mend a broken relationship with her own mother as the boy helps his grandfather recover from a stroke.

The schedule for the playwrights' campus visits is as follows:

Visit the symposium web site at www.iupui.edu/~comstudy/playsym/symhome.html for additional information, including times and dates for the final staged readings of the individual plays.

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