Amazon.com Makes $25,000 Grant to ACT’s Young Playwrights Program Benefiting Hundreds of Middle and High School Students

ACT is the first theatre in nation to receive support from online retailer

Seattle, WA – January 25, 2010 – ACT – A Contemporary Theatre is proud to announce that its flagship education initiative, the Young Playwrights Program (YPP), has received a generous $25,000 grant from Seattle-based Amazon.com.

Amazon.com’s support of the YPP positively impacts all aspects of the program, from the start of the student writing process in the fall under the guidance of ACT’s playwright teaching artists, to the presentation of selected student works in the Young Playwrights Festival in the spring (March 11-13), to the printing of the 2009/2010 PLAY anthology, a publication featuring approximately 16 young playwrights hailing from schools throughout our region.

“Amazon.com’s commitment to developing and promoting young writers is invaluable,” said ACT Education Director Kristina Sutherland. “Amazon.com’s support will help ACT reach more than 300 young playwrights in the Seattle-area in 2010 and put young playwrights’ work into print. We are thrilled to have them work with us and endow students with the self-confidence that their ideas matter and their voices deserve to, and will, be heard.”

“ACT, through its Young Playwright’s Program, shares Amazon.com’s commitment to developing the next generation of authors and content creators,” said Jon Fine, director of Author & Publisher Relations for Amazon.com. “We are excited to provide our support, and look forward to the great works these young writers offer in the future.”

ACT is one of a diverse range of not-for-profit organizations receiving support from Amazon.com for programs dedicated to developing and publishing new works and new authors, both in and around Seattle and nationwide. Other recipients include Pen American Center, Artist Trust, Hedgebrook, Copper Canyon Press, National Novel Writing Month, Port Townsend Writers Conference, Clarion West, NY Writers Coalition, The Moth, and Milkweed Editions. A number of programs, like YPP, focus on nurturing the writing of teens and other youth, including 826 Seattle, Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools Program, the Hugo House Youth Writing program, the Center for the Art of Translation, and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. All of these organizations share Amazon.com’s commitment to helping authors create great new works.