In recent years SFMT has worked most closely with San Francisco's Balboa High School, collaborating with administrators and teachers as YCWP has become a vital highlight in their students' academic year.

 

Through discussion and writing exercises the students are introduced first to the essentials of dramatic writing, story creation, then character creation, then dialogue, and then how to combine those elements to tell a dramatized story. Finally they are given the opportunity to create short plays telling the stories that matter the most to them.

 

At the end of the program a self-selected group of young playwrights have their work presented at the Mime Troupe Studio in San Francisco's Mission District- performed by professional actors and staged by professional directors - in a staged reading presented for free to teachers, parents, neighbors, fellow students: anyone who wants to hear the amazing plays these writers have created.

 

Our teacher encourages the students to tell meaningful stories, important stories, to write short plays that will have an impact on the audience. As Michael says, "This may be your only chance to have a group of adults have to sit down, be quiet, and listen to what you have to say, your feelings, your experiences, to see the world and what you are dealing with through your eyes, and in your voices."