Southampton - Eight short plays written and performed by middle school students from area schools will be presented at Stony Brook Southampton's Avram Theater on March 20 at 7 p.m., as the culminating event of the new Young American Writers Project (YAWP). Participating middle schools include Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor's Pierson, Tuckahoe, Eastport South Manor, the Shelter Island School and the Ross School.

YAWP, created and sponsored by Stony Brook Southampton's MFA in Writing and Literature Program, is dedicated to mentoring middle and high school students in the development of creative expression and critical thinking through writing. Professional writers and teaching artists lead come to lead workshops in a wide array of writing disciplines, including Playwriting, Screenwriting, Poetry, Personal Essay and Fiction. YAWP Programs in Fiction and Poetry will premiere this spring at Southampton Intermediate School.

Close to 200 students participated in the YAWP Middle School Playwriting Residency this winter. Over the course of two months, students explored the basic elements of dramatic writing: how to develop ideas, characters, themes, dialogue and scenes, culminating with each student writing a 10-minute, one act play. One play from each participating class was then selected for production in the Festival. Professional directors stage the plays, which encompass a wide array of genres - from comedies to dramas - with subject matters drawn from the students' own lives.

The Young American Writers Project is helmed by Emma Walton Hamilton as Executive Director and Will Chandler as Program Director. Hamilton is a bestselling children's book author, editor and arts educator, and serves as the Co-Director of the Southampton Playwriting and Children's Literature Conferences. A Co-Founder of Bay Street Theatre, she was 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 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 I am 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 curriculum development and program design, the YAWP administrators drew 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 more information go to www.stonybrook.edu/sb/southampton, and for reservations email at william.chandler@stonybrook.edu.