From Page to Stage: 20 Years of Young Playwrights with Touchstone Theatre

🎧 Listen to the Episode:
From Page to Stage: Celebrating 20 Years of Young Playwrights
🎙 https://lehighvalleywithlovemedia.com/podcast/youngplaywrights20

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This week on the Lehigh Valley with Love Podcast, we’re spotlighting a local tradition that’s helped more than 2,000 kids turn their ideas into fully staged works of art.

We sat down with Mary Wright, Touchstone Theatre’s longtime education director, and Krista Metter, a local actor and teaching artist, to talk about the 20th Annual Young Playwrights’ Festival—taking place Sunday, May 18 at 3 PM at Northeast Middle School in Bethlehem.

At its core, the festival is about storytelling. But more than that, it’s about honoring kids’ voices.

“We help them write their own original one-act play,” says Mary. “And these plays—they’re serious, silly, fun. But always, they’re a window into what kids care about right now.”

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What Is the Young Playwrights’ Lab?

The program began over 20 years ago at Donegan Elementary, when teachers asked, what’s next? after a successful residency with Touchstone. What came next was a groundbreaking collaboration between educators and artists—an afterschool program where kids explore creativity, literacy, and theater through games, improvisation, and playwriting.

More than 100 original student plays were written this year alone, and a select few will be performed at the festival by Touchstone ensemble members and local community actors.

“Someone once said the Young Playwrights’ Festival is the most magical night of theater in the Lehigh Valley,” Mary shares. “And I agree.”

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It’s a Festival, It’s a Party, It’s a Celebration

The energy surrounding this milestone year is electric. Krista, who first joined the festival cast as a hermit crab-turned-octopus leader (yes, really), describes the experience as both joyful and profound.

“The camaraderie was immediate,” she says. “We were just a little band of octopi and pirates ready for anything.”

Actors, directors, and even parents pitch in to build costumes, paint sets, and help bring each child’s script to life. And perhaps most meaningfully, the young playwrights attend rehearsals, where their ideas are treated with the same respect as any professional production.

“It’s rare in this world for kids’ ideas to be taken so seriously,” says Mary. “But here, they are.”

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A Living Archive of Imagination

With over two decades of scripts saved, Touchstone has quietly built a creative archive of youth expression in the Lehigh Valley.

“We’ve kept every single play,” Mary notes. “It’s this incredible record of what kids were thinking and feeling—year by year.”

From battles between sea creatures to heartfelt stories about friendship and family, the festival is a reminder of how powerful young voices can be—especially when adults step back and let them lead.

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Come See the Magic

🎟 20th Annual Young Playwrights’ Festival
🗓 Sunday, May 18 at 3 PM
📍 Northeast Middle School Theatre, 1170 Fernwood St., Bethlehem, PA
🎟 Tickets: $15 | Get yours at touchstone.org

🧁 Stay after the 90-minute show for cake and celebration!

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