Southampton - Come one, come all to enjoy holiday cheer and colorful history at Stony Brook Southampton.

On Friday, December 9, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Stony Brook Southampton's Graduate Arts Campus and School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences will host the traditional holiday lighting of the windmill. The windmill lighting and reception that follows in Chancellors Hall will precede a talk on Long Island's whaling heritage by Tara Rider Zeiss at 7:30 p.m.

The reception will feature hot cocoa, holiday treats, a caricaturist, balloon magic, crafts for the children, and the Voices of Southampton High School (VOSH) choral group singing holiday classics.

At 7:30 p.m. in Duke Lecture Hall, the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences will offer a talk by Zeiss, "There She Blows: A Look at Long Island's Whaling Heritage," as part of the SOMAS Fall 2011 Public Lecture Series. Zeiss, who graduated from Southampton College and earned her master's degree at Stony Brook University, will explore how whaling has shaped Long Island's communities and culture. For more information, call 631-632-5030, or click below.

Native Americans were the first people to whale on Long Island, long before settlers in Southampton and East Hampton started to form local shore whaling companies in the 1640s, which in turn led to the whale becoming Long Island's first "cash crop." The whaling industry evolved into a driving force in Long Island's economy in the 19th century. Today, opportunities for whale watching continue to attract Long Islanders.

On Saturday, December 10, at 7 p.m. at the Avram Theater, 10 short plays written and performed by high school students will be presented at Stony Brook as the culminating event of the 2011 Young American Writers Project (YAWP) High School Playwriting Program. Participating schools include Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor's Pierson, Southampton, Eastport South Manor, The Ross School, Shelter Island, Westhampton Beach and the Foreign Language Academy of Global Studies (FLAGS) in the Bronx. Admission is free.

The festival represents the collaboration between student playwrights, actors and designers who have been taught and mentored by theater and writing professionals affiliated with Stony Brook Southampton's MFA in Creative Writing and Literature, which created and sponsors the YAWP programs. Professional directors stage the plays, which encompass a wide array of genres - from comedies to dramas - with subject matter drawn from the students' own lives.

The Young American Writers Project is dedicated to mentoring middle and high school students in the development of creative expression and critical thinking through writing, and is an integral part of Stony Brook Southampton's commitment to its community, and to the next generation of readers and writers. The YAWP programs send professional writers and teaching artists into classrooms to lead workshops in a wide array of writing disciplines, including Playwriting, Screenwriting, Poetry, Personal Essay and Fiction.
Some 125 students participated in the inaugural YAWP High School Playwriting Residency and Retreat this fall. Over the course of two months, students explored the basic elements of dramatic writing: how to develop ideas, characters, themes, dialogue and scenes. One play from each participating class was then selected for production in the Festival.

The Young American Writers Project is helmed by Executive Director Emma Walton Hamilton and Program Director Will Chandler. Hamilton is a bestselling children's book author, editor and arts educator and serves as director of the Southampton Children's Literature Conference. A co-founder of Bay Street Theatre, she served as the theatre's co-artistic director, and subsequently director of education and programming for young audiences for 17 years. Chandler, an American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Nicholl Fellowship screenwriter, also served as education director and as a teaching artist for Bay Street Theatre. He has written a number of screenplays for clients ranging from Sony Pictures to actor Russell Crowe and has been a story analyst/script doctor for ABC, CBS, NBC, Viacom and HBO, among others.

"Dramatic writing and production skills give young people unparalleled lessons in communication and collaboration," Hamilton said. "They build confidence, and have a direct impact on young people's abilities to become engaged and compassionate citizens in later life. This project represents a wonderful synergy between all the creative disciplines and values about which we are passionate."

"When we go into schools, we work closely with classroom teachers as we convey the basic elements of dramatic writing," Chandler added. "Learning dramatic writing is a great way to improve overall writing skills, but what we're really teaching them is that each student has a 'voice,' and we want to hear it."

For ongoing curriculum development and program design, the YAWP administrators draw on the substantial strengths of the Stony Brook Southampton MFA faculty, including novelist and MFA Director Robert Reeves; recent Whiting Award-winning poet Julie Sheehan; best-selling memoirist and editor-in-chief of The Southampton Review, Lou Ann Walker; and screenwriter and Emmy award-winning producer Annette Handley Chandler.

"The YAWP programs are a wonderful way for us to reach - and to help shape - the next generation of American writers," said Reeves, "as well as an ideal way to offer training and teaching experience to our very talented graduates and graduate students."

Tickets for the performance are free. For reservations and more information, email william.chandler@stonybrook.edu.