Young Playwright’s Festival

The Young Playwrights Festival has been the flagship education program at Baltimore Center Stage for the past 40 years. Students in grades K–12 throughout Maryland submit plays to the Festival, and six winning plays are honored with a professional production of their play at Baltimore Center Stage.

This production was originally scheduled for March 27th, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was postponed indefinitely, and later produced over Zoom in June 2020.

As a designer transferring live sound onto a virtual platform, one of the biggest questions was how much sound could be kept live via Zoom, versus how much should be added in post-production. In the end, about half of the cues were added in post-production, largely due to the capabilities of Zoom and being unable to hear more than one source of sound at a time.

More than any other theatrical production I have worked on, this festival required collaboration, compromise, and relinquishing of control. Due to a rushed post-production process, I was able to give one round of edits to the video editor in regards to sound. As I watched the premiere, however, there were a few surprises in the design (both good and not-so-good).

Illustration: Rebecca Hu

Young Playwright’s Festival
Baltimore Center Stage
Directed by Susan Stroupe
Sound Design: Abra Clawson
Lighting Design: Michael Logue
Set Design: Sam Martin
Costume Design: John Polles
Video Editor: Jess McGowan

Although they could not be used once we switched to a virtual production, a playlist of songs that were to be used for preshow music can be found here.

The full performance can be found on Baltimore Center Stage’s Youtube Channel. Selected cues are provided below for each of the six plays.

The Earthlings
by Sarah Nelson

Two aliens arrive on earth, trying to figure out what creature to abduct. They soon find out the real point of abduction is the friends you make along the way.

As the lights come up on XOID and LOID, we see them in their spaceship
XOID and LOID land on Earth, arriving in New York City
XOID and LOID’s spaceship sputters as XOID tries to open the door
Hectic Running Music, used across many of the plays in order to connect them
XOID and LOID fly off into the distance, with the cat

Vacation Complication
by The Happy, Cool 2-3 Crew

A group of friends is on their way to Disney World for vacation, but some members of the group want to hit up the casinos of Florida instead.

The friends all fall asleep in their hotel room before MIA and DIAMOND leave for the casino

Repast
by Noelle Young-Davis

As a family gathers in mourning, conflict arises around debts owed.

Music for the transition into the top of the play

Lost Property
by Ronan Guilfoyle

A young boy loses his ball to the yard of the haunted house next door, then embarks on a journey to retrieve it.

The wind howls as BOY considers the house, and the Fourth Graders’ warnings
A monster growls
BOY and FRIEND round the corner and sees that the monster was just a dog all along

The Discovery of a New Planet
by Isaiah Owens, Payton West, Tyler Dorsey, Xavier Buchanan, and Milan Burley

Alex and his friends are taken away to Underpants World, where everyone wears only underpants.

IMAYA transforms into a member of the Underpants Police
A toilet flushes ominously as ALEX arrives in jail

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200
by Deep Creek Middle Drama Club

The murder of a close friend prompts MyKelle to investigate, discovering how much her friend had never told her.

Fight music, also used in DISCOVERY OF A NEW PLANET
Someone knocks on the door and kicks it in
The MyKelle and Reuben PI theme song

Cue List

Though the process of moving these plays to Zoom changed how many of the cues were created, the placement of cues stayed largely the same. Here, I have notated which cues were added in post-production.

ypf-cue-list-finalDownload