YAWP

Hello Beautiful People,

Exactly two weeks ago I was in a technical rehearsal for YAWP. The Young Artists and Writers Project (or YAWP, formerly the Young American Writers Project) created by Stony Brook Southampton’s MFA in Creative Writing and Literature Program is an outstanding program committed to mentoring middle and high school students in the development of creative expression and critical thinking through writing.

Teaching artists had pushed into the general education classrooms for ten weeks, and guided the students on a path to playwriting.  For English classrooms, the subject matter was up to the students.  For the social studies classrooms, the students were required to write within the units that they were studying.

The culminating project is a performance at the Avram Theatre at Stony Brook Southampton College.  The program hires professional directors and technicians to help mount the plays and do justice to the vision of the playwright.  That’s where I come in.

It has been my privilege to be part of this program for the past five years, and each year I am blown away by the entire process.

Some of these kids have never stepped foot in a theater, and yet, they have the passion and dedication of seasoned professionals.  They are sponges, eager to work, eager to soak it all in, eager to learn.

It. Is. Outstanding.

Each year, just by happenstance, I cast a student who is deemed a “problem child”.  These are not my words, but the words of those who know the student, the words of the teachers who look at me a little cross-eyed when I tell them who has been cast in the production. 

Are you sure? He/she doesn’t normally put in any effort…into anything related to school.

Yes I’m sure, I say.  They did a great job in the auditions.  They are the best person for the job. 

And then the students rise to the occasion.  I set the bar and my expectations high, but I give them the tools and the direction to accomplish what they must do in order to succeed.

And it is awesome.

And every year, parents and classroom teachers are blown away by what they see.

And, like one very special person in the program says, small miracles happen backstage and dead center.

Live, Love, Learn,

Megan & The Write Teacher(s)