This program is being revamped by Tammie Swopes for youth/children's theatre outside the NPYA series. More information forthcoming from the Program in Educational Theatre.
Recognizing our position as a small program with a long reach, New Plays for Young Audiences proposes to actively work to disrupt trends that perpetuate a narrow lens of the youth experience, particularly focusing on the US experience. Seeking stories by and for global majority artists, youth, and creative teams.
The SOOS (Seeing Ourselves on Stage…) was originally envisioned as a smaller program within our already small NPYA program. It was a mentoring program designed to provide support for global majority playwrights and stories geared towards the global majority youth experience. There was no development, per se, just mentoring and then an opportunity for an unstaged (unrehearsed) reading.
After much consideration as to how best to utilize the program and accomplish its goals, in 2026, the SOOS Artistic Director, Tammie Swopes, moved to change the focus of the program to youth theatre and children's theatre within the Program in Educational Theatre at NYU Steinhardt, but outside the scope of NPYA. Thus this website is currently historical while that new focus is developed and implemented.
SOOS Program History
BIPOC Initiative (2021): NPYA hosted three nights of BIPOC TYA stories written by BIPOC playwrights in an event titled, A Night of BIPOC TYA stories: Get Your Play Heard!, between June 17-19, 2021. The goal of the initiative was to help each script and playwright find additional support in their development and production journeys. The first night’s theme was folk tales and stories of the past. It featured Heartstrings by Lee Cataluna and Hee Hee Tales by M.J. Kang. The second night’s theme was magical realism. It featured Spayce Boys by Mateo Hernandez and Yo So Frida by Israel Jiménez. The third night’s theme was exploring what TYA is and what makes a TYA play. It featured R(estoration) I(n) P(rogress) by Andrea Ambam and Nzuri Haar by Darin F. Earl, II.
¡Lotería: Game On! (2022) by Mabelle Reynoso
When family game night falls apart, two siblings must rescue their mother trapped inside the game they were supposed to play. Inspired by the traditional Mexican card game Lotería.
The Show Ends When the Stoop Breaks (2022) by Cris Eli Blak
A neighborhood changing and the path that two friends must take – – one being a street dancer and the other a pizza delivery boy dreaming of a life greater than his block, while in the background, a mural important to both of them is at risk of being torn down.
Doble Vida (2022) by Cielo Gomez
The mother-daughter relationship of a Mexican immigrant household in the modern United States is tested in this coming-of-age story.
The Witch of Boggy Depot (2022) by Alan Kilpatrick (and further developed in the 2023 NPYA series)
A young Native American woman learns how to deal with Choctaw witches from a blind elder residing in an Oklahoma retirement home.