I’ve been thinking a lot about the fact that for young adults out there who
A scene from The House Theatre's hit 2007 show, The Sparrow.
really enjoy theatre, but who might want to see more stories on stage featuring characters like them, there aren’t a ton of options. Sure, there are children’s theatre companies (and the best children’s theatre is inventive, depthful, whimsical, and true – theatre that all ages can enjoy), and there are a few theatre companies peppered throughout Chicago (like The House Theatre) producing shows for adults and teens alike. There are even initiatives like Steppenwolf For Young Adults, a program that gives teens a chance to work with professional theatre artists and attend performances of books adapted to the stage. If you look hard enough there are definitely some cool and exciting theatrical goings-on for young adults out there.
But that’s the thing: You have to look hard. I wonder why there aren’t more stage characters who are like Frankie Landau Banks or Marcus (a/k/a W1n5t0n) from Little Brother? I wonder why there aren’t more stories for young adults on stage as true to freshman year life as Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, as epic and dangerous as A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, or as inventive and bold as Uglies by Scott Westerfeld?
I’m thinking hard on this because I realized that two of my favorite plays – Stone Cold Dead Serious by Adam Rapp 
and Four by Christopher Shinn – do tell stories that feature teens as main characters and are as moving, humorous, and compelling as any of the great YA novels we have in The Loft. And then I realized that there are a lot of excellent YA-plays like these across the drama universe, but it’s rare to find them all in the same place.
So what if we collected a stack of the best modern (and classic) YA-themed plays at The Loft? Plays like The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow by
A scene from Jenny Chow.
Rolin Jones, a play about an 18 year old adopted from China who builds a flying cyborg that she sends to China to find her birth parents? Beyond being great reads, maybe you’ll want to suggest a few of them to your school theatre department for production or use scenes for acting team.
If there are any plays you think we should have in our (maybe) collection email me - jdapier@cityofevanston.org.
(Btw - There’s one almost entirely teen-run theatre company in Chicago that is devoted to producing original pieces of theatre written and performed by teens. It’s called Albany Park Theatre Project and their work is roofless, intense, and stun-stun-stunning. I only didn’t mention them because I’m saving it for another post. Stay tuned!).
-Jarrett
