YOUNG SOUTHERN WRITERS PROGRAM
HIGH SCHOOL & COLLEGE STUDENTS
JUNE 12–15, 2024
Learn more about playwriting and write a play of your own with a professional playwright commissioned by ASF! Students will be selected by a special committee of theatre professionals to spend the week at ASF during our Southern Writers Festival 2024. Young writers will have the opportunity to learn from a playwright who has mastered their craft, and they’ll participate in a 10-Minute Play Festival. At the conclusion of the 10-Minute Play Festival, one student will receive the Critics Choice Award and one student will be honored with the Audience Choice Award.
GUIDELINES:
- High School students (grades 9–12) and College students (18+) may apply.
- Applications must be submitted by Friday, April 26, 2024.
- Students with experience in creative writing preferred, but not required.
- At least ONE letter of reference from a teacher or adult not in your family.
- Applicants who do not complete the entire application or submit supplemental documents will not be considered.
- 2024 YSWP invitees will be announced on Friday, May 10, 2024.
For questions or more information, contact Cameron Williams at [email protected].
Instructors
Quentin Cockrell
YSWP College Workshops
Quinton Cockrell is a writer, director, and playwright. Quinton’s writing has been selected as a finalist in Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Ashland New Play Festival, The O’Neill Center’s National Music Theater Conference, The Southeastern Theatre Conference Charles M. Getchell Prize, and The Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Contest. His play City Limits won the Barter Theatre’s Black in Appalachia Initiative. Quinton was commissioned by The Red Mountain Theatre Company to write Memorial and The Calling. Quinton is an Associate Professor of Performance at Troy University. He is a member of Actor’s Equity Association and The Dramatists Guild of America.
Nathan Maxwell
YSWP High School Workshops
Nathan R. Maxwell was born and raised in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. They received their undergraduate degree in Theatre from Troy University and received their MFA in Playwriting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Their plays my town and Shady Acres: gospel iii of iv were developed at Rutgers University and received readings at Ensemble Studio Theatre. They were the recipient of the Mississippi Theatre Association Adult Playwriting Award for their play The Kid in 2016.
Neil David Seibel
10-Minute Play Festival Director
Neil David Seibel (he/him) has created solo and ensemble performances throughout the US and Europe including The Normal Giant, Paternity Leave, Alla Har En Historia, The Daughters of Abraham, Oraciones De Mi Patria, RTP and My Appalachia. Directing and acting credits include Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Mill Mountain Theatre, Denver Center, Theatre Aspen, Arvada Center, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Alley Theatre, Theatre Under The Stars, Actors Theatre of Louisville, HERE/NYC and En Garde Arts, Off Broadway. A Kentucky native who calls Alabama home, he teaches for Auburn University at Montgomery and alternate summers at Hollins Playwrights Lab.