September 23, 2024

Dr. Beth Reaves – Head of School, Washington School for Girls (WSG)

Washington School for Girls (WSG) is a co-sponsored ministry of the Society of Holy Child Jesus.

Last school year, the Washington School for Girls (WSG) revived its partnership with the Young Playwrights Theatre (YPT), an arts organization that inspires young people to realize the power of their voices through playwriting and theater workshops.

YPT worked with our middle school students in their Reading/Language Arts classes to develop original plays throughout the year. Students conceptualized, outlined, and wrote scenes individually to develop their writing skills for the stage. Once students were familiar with the process, they collaborated to write a full one-act play with their classmates. At the end of the year, students performed a staged read-through of each play for the school community.

The 6th-grade play, “The Mysteries of the Park,” follows a group of friends whose friend goes missing at an amusement park and explores the themes of friendship and how to treat each other with kindness and respect.

The 7th-grade play “A Zombie Saga” described a zombie outbreak at WSG initiated by a contaminated school lunch. The characters had to work together to save their classmates and turn them back into humans using a special formula they concocted in the science lab.

Lastly, the 8th-grade play “Once Upon a Girls Trip” featured a vacation gone wrong due to interpersonal conflicts in the group.

Students learned how to develop dramatic tension, show characters’ motivations through dialogue and on-stage action, and incorporate core themes throughout their plays. YPT will offer a weekly club for students interested in continuing playwriting this year.