IV. PRAGmatics, Summer 2001- Journal of the Policy Research Action Group, Loyola University
From "For Love or Money," bv Charity Hope Tolliver.
Pegasus Players and their Award-Winning Young Playwrights
By Jacob Berlin
Summer 2001
In Chicago's public schools, teaching students to read and write is a challenge unto itself. Getting them interested in art and culture is a separate-and similarly daunting--task. It is no surprise, then, that the thought of successfully combining the two tasks is deemed virtually impossible by some.
Not so, however. The Young Playwrights Festival, at the Pegasus Players theatre in Uptown, has been doing just that for more than fifteen years now. Over 70,000 Chicago teenagers have benefited from the various components of the Festival since its inception in 1987, with more than 60 earning the grand prize -- a full-blown, professional production of their work as part of Pegasus' main-stage season.
Pegasus Players was founded during the summer of 1978, when faculty and students at the City Colleges of Chicago began performing original theatrical pieces written by students. Hoping to fill the need in Uptown for access to Eve theatre, the group began touring. After becoming incorporated in 1979, Pegasus moved into a 90-seat rented space in the Edgewater Presbyterian Church.
In 1984, the theatre relocated to the O'Rourke Center for the Performing Arts, a 250 seat, $4 million facility on the Truman College campus. (Pegasus remains, however, an autonomous institution.) Since then, more than 300,000 people have seen shows at Pegasus, quite an accomplishment for a not-for-profit, community-based theatre that serves such an economically diverse neighborhood as Uptown. In addition, the theatre has received 67 Joseph Jefferson Citations (the Joseph Jefferson Committee awards excellence and outstanding achievement in Chicago theatre, similar to New York's Tony Awards), the Chicago Commission on Human Relations Year 2000 Human Relations Award-the only time a theatre has won in the award's 10 year history, and the 2001 James Brown Award from the Chicago Community Trust for Outstanding Community Service he first time ever in 25 years that an arts organization has won.
The Young Playwrights Festival has become the crown jewel of Pegasus' repertoire, consuming 25% of the theatre's total budget. A comprehensive, year-long program, its ultimate goal is "to make the arts a means of delivering the core curriculum in the schools," according to Dr. Arlene Crewdson, Pegasus' Executive and Artistic
Director. Throughout the school year, more than 70 Festival tours comprised of actors and playwriting specialists, visit classes grades 7 through 12, acting out previous winning plays and going over the rudiments of playwriting. This first visit is often followed by a second, more detailed one, in which the students workshop their own, original plays. Even without the Pegasus troupe present, however, the teachers continue to work on the project.
It is this relationship with public schools that makes the Young Playwrights Festival so successful. Says Dr. Cozette Buckney, Chief Education Officer of the Board of Education, "The partnership with Pegasus is a marvelous opportunity for our students to use their creativity and their love of reading and writing and acting. We're very appreciative that an outside organization supports our schools. I was extremely impressed not only with the students but also with the teachers who help them develop these talents." In this way the Young Playwrights Festival encourages students to explore an area of expression that many of them are unfamiliar with. Rolanda Brigham, a former coordinator of the Festival, explains, "Some of these kids are so rough and so hard, and we crack that shell. Before [the students] realize it, they're participating. They're engaged." Furthermore, the sheer unearthing of talent is astounding: "A lot of times, the [student Playwright's] teacher will say, 'I didn't even know he could read'," says Brigham.
From "The Blues" by Mercedes MacDonald.
The end result is an enormous number of original plays by Chicago teens. Since the inception of the Festival, Pegasus has received more than 4900 scripts, with more than 400 annually since 1995. This year the program received 511 plays written by 566 students (some are co-written) - both all-time highs. Theatre and educational professionals then read the plays and write individual evaluations of each one, which are returned to the students. From the hundreds of scripts, ten finalists and ten honorable mentions are chosen; the finalists' plays being given staged readings by professional actors sometime early in the summer. A panel of judges comprised of prominent Chicago theatre professionals, community leaders, teachers, and members of the philanthropic community, pick three or four winners from these finalists.
These winning plays are given as full-scale, no-holds barred productions, complete with professional actors, directors, and designers. They are even reviewed by all the major Chicago newspapers. The effect this has on the students is hard to exaggerate, according to Brigham, "They are awed out of their minds." Said Abbie Kruse, a winning playwright in the 1998 Festival, "I heard [the actors] saying my lines, and the realization that they had to memorize what I wrote made me feel very powerful."
The positive effects of the Festival, however, are clearly not limited to the winning students. Crewdson, who is also Pegasus' founder and an ex-teacher, emphasizes the benefits of teaching playwriting to teens: "The process of playwriting in the classroom brings into play all the natural curiosity, creativity, energy, and initiative of young people. This process encourages self-esteem, personal and social well being and a deepened understanding of our multicultural world. The students giving voice to their creativity also develop higher-order thinking and real-life problem solving. [In addition], it makes learning fun and empowers individuals and gives self worth to their own experiences, their own points of view.
Because the students can control the outcome of the story, they learn the power of words and ideas; indeed, for many it is the first time that they see they have power over their own lives through the choices they make." From the perspective of the playwright, Abbie Kruse agrees: "The Festival] shows kids that things they write can be beautiful. What usually happens is you write a [a play], show your friends, and you put it away.... [Pegasus] rewards you for trying to touch other's lives."
Pegasus continues to reward teens for their efforts, and with the Young Playwrights Festival in its sixteenth year, it seems to have the staying power to continue to do so for many years. As Chris Jones of the Cbicago Tribune writes, "An important festival to the future of the theatre, this event aptly demonstrates just how many Chicago educational institutions are encouraging students to write
about their lives, and to do so very, very well." But maybe Richard Christiansen, also of the Tribune, sums up the program the best, "The Young Playwrights Festival stands as a good deed and an honorable institution in Chicago theatre."
Jake Berlin is a two-time winner of the Young Playwrights Festival. He describes his experiences as a Pegasus intern this Summer
Below. Jakes's e-mail address is Jacob_Berlin@brown.edu.
An Intern Reflects on His Experience at Pegasus
Every high school student needs validation. In that time of transition, exploration, and confusion, teenagers need at least one moment when they are recognized, awarded, congratulated, and acclaimed. For many, that recognition comes in sports; for others, academics. But whatever the circumstances, every teen needs at least one moment in which to truly feel special.
Winning the Chicago Young Playwrights Festival is certainly one of those moments. Personally, I was lucky enough to be a winner in the Festival twice....1998 and 1999....and I know just how exhilarating of an experience it is. The first time I saw my name in the newspaper, I simply stared at it, awed and stunned by the surrealism of it all. And when I saw my name in the Stagebill on opening night, even then I felt there must be some mistake, that perhaps there was a professional playwright out there with a similar name, and this was simply a typo.
From "And After the Fire, a Soft Still Voice,"
by Tichye Krakowski
Winning an award and receiving a professional production of your work is certainly more than enough validation for one teenager, but frankly, I was swimming in the stuff. I was also lucky enough to be a participant in Young Chicago Authors, a scholarship writing program for high school students. We met once a week to workshop our writing, and usually once more for a poetry reading, an outing to the theatre, or to listen to an established author talk about the trade. They even published our work in books and magazines.
Young Chicago Authors was also how I found out about the Young Playwrights Festival in the first place. I was urged by
my teachers at the former to enter into the latter. Looking back, I am most struck by the many connections between the two programs, especially by their sources of funding. The philanthropic scene in Chicago, especially in the arts, and especially for young people, is an extremely small world; I can name off the top of my head at least five foundations/trusts/donors that sponsor both programs. I suppose that's a good thing, how closely knit the moneyed donors are, because it makes for better communication, and more exposure for worthy causes. Luckily for me, it cuts down on the number of people I have to thank for my teenage validation.
Jake Berlin is a student at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. A Chicago native, he attended Francis W. Parker School and remains the only two-time winner of the Chicago Young Playwrights Festival. He spent the Summer of 2001 as a Theater Intern at Pegasus Players, and hopes to make a career writing for the stage.
Visit the Pegasus Players web site at www.pegasusplayers.org or call 773-878-9761 for more information.