Dobama brings playwriting programs to schools

Dobama Theatre partners with schools and community organizations to bring the art of playwriting to language arts and drama classrooms all over Northeast Ohio, including multiple schools in the CH-UH district. In addition to providing arts education, the program reinforces essential literacy skills in conjunction with established curriculum.

The Young Playwrights Program (YPP) is taught by professional playwrights and theater artists in the classroom. The wide-ranging resources available include single workshops, residencies (three or more workshop sessions), instructional videos, and a fully adaptable curriculum based on grade level. YPP is currently free to public schools in some districts; Dobama provides these workshops to CH-UH schools at no cost.

Multiple studies have shown the value of applying writing skills across subject lines. YPP encourages students to explore history, science, and current events in addition to different genres of traditional storytelling, all while reinforcing literacy skills such as structure, theme, tone, and point of view.

Dobama’s workshops provide students with a valuable method of engaging with written language—a skill that is particularly suffering in the wake of COVID—all while giving the students a venue in which to write about what interests them.

YPP participation meets many Ohio Department of Education K­–12 Learning Standards, including correct identification and usage of structure, grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation, as well as broader skills such as reading comprehension and staying on topic. As part of the in-school workshops, teaching artists also develop students’ listening and speaking skills by fostering collaborative conversations rooted in constructive criticism of other students’ plays, both in 1:1 situations and group settings.

YPP has grown exponentially over the past four years. Prior to COVID shutdowns in 2020, Dobama was present in two to three schools annually, only one of which was in the CH-UH district. Since then, the number of workshops has grown more than 800% and currently totals more than 200 over the course of a school year. Thanks to essential funding from organizations that include the David and Inez Myers Foundation and the PNC Charitable Foundation, the program has expanded into more than 10 CH-UH classrooms, without costing the district a dime.

YPP culminates in the Marilyn Bianchi Kids’ Playwriting Festival (MBKPF), where students submit 10-minute plays for blind review by a panel of judges. Twenty plays are selected as winners each year, and 10 receive a full professional production on Dobama’s stage during the first weekend in June. MBKPF is the oldest event of its kind in the United States, celebrating its 47th anniversary in June 2025.

Dobama’s cohort of teaching artists are off and running for the 2024–25 school year. Contact Director of Education Carrie Williams (youngplaywrights@dobama.org) to bring YPP to your school or group.