PLAYWRIGHTS PROJECT

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Grantee Database

Grant Year

2024-25

Grant Program

Impact Projects

Award Amount

$23,147.00

Project Description

With support from the California Arts Council, Playwrights Project will provide an artistic community for individuals returning home after incarceration by conducting playwriting programs at reentry facilities and providing year-round work opportunities for those returning home via internships, writers circles, teaching artist trainings, work as teaching artists, and as paid creators, advisors, writers, actors and panelists on productions that will be presented to the general public and toured to correctional facilities or aired via video on institutional television. Each presentation will be followed by a post-performance discussion led as a restorative circle for audiences to process emotions, ideas and reactions to the work and pose questions to a panel of returned citizens and experts in the justice system.

Organization Summary

Playwrights Project provides playwriting workshops in schools, communities, and correctional facilities, conducts the annual California Young Playwrights Contest for writers under the age of 19, and professionally produces community readings and full productions of Plays by Young Writers and The Mosaic Festival. Playwrights Project’s programs engage underserved populations in dramatizing stories drawn from imagination and life experiences, including reflections on the impact of poverty, incarceration, addiction, foster care, and military service. Recognizing that life presents difficult situations, forces beyond our control, and challenging decisions, the programs guide individuals to reflect on past experiences with compassion, create fictional plays that examine hardships, explore positive non-violent solutions, look forward to brighter futures, and celebrate the resilience gained by triumphing over difficulties.

Organization