Q & A with
David Andrew Snider

 Producing Artistic Director, Young Playwrights' Theater

Last in a series on the 2009 Exponent Award recipients

Q: Tell us about Young Playwrights’ Theater.

A: Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT) teaches students to express themselves clearly and creatively through the art of playwriting through interactive in-school and after-school programs. Students are inspired to understand the power of language and realize their potential as both individuals and artists. By publicly presenting and discussing student-written work, YPT promotes community dialogue and respect for young artists. 

Q: Describe some of the collaborations YPT has been involved with during the past year. What is your strategy for cultivating strong partnerships?

A: As a small but dynamic company we thrive on partnerships and collaborations. We look for partners with missions and approaches that complement our own, help us reach deeper into the community and leverage new resources. We foster long-term partnerships and forge strategic alliances that both advance and are consistent with our mission and brand. And we hold ourselves accountable to maximize our resources to fulfill our commitment to the community.

In addition to the dozens of schools and thousands of students and community members we served, in the past year we partnered with the Kennedy Center and the White House Historical Association for a national tour of Chasing George Washington, the musical we created with DC fifth and sixth graders (nominated for a Helen Hayes Award in 2009). We partnered with the US Department of Justice, the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, and the Maya Angelou Public Charter School to create and produce Choosing Change, a play about young people’s experience of the DC juvenile justice system. And we collaborated with DC City Councilmember Jim Graham and the city-wide Coordinating Council on Youth Violence Prevention to create and produce a piece titled Dying for Respect, which provides a youth perspective about the epidemic of street and gang violence plaguing our city.

Q: What are YPTs strongest accomplishments under your leadership?

A: While tripling the number of students we serve each year, we’ve developed the infrastructure to sustain our mission, including the creation of a virtual and physical library of the thousands of student plays, our first online database for tracking student progress and fundraising, and the development of marketing and community engagement tools that help us better tell our story and the stories of thousands of our students.

Our fundraising has become much more streamlined and dynamic, with systems in place to ensure that every funder knows how much we value their support and that 85 cents of every dollar is going directly into the classroom. We also now ensure that all parts of our work, from fundraising to programming to marketing to production, are integrated  in pursuit of our mission. 

Q: How do you make playwriting relevant to the lives of the students you serve?

A: We believe that each student has a story worth telling.  The YPT process invites students to share their ideas, dreams, and beliefs through the playwright’s craft. We also meet students where they are. By reaching out to students through organized in-school, after-school, and summer programs at neighborhood schools and community centers, YPT provides students of diverse backgrounds with a supportive environment where they can exchange ideas and express themselves freely. 

Q: When you became an executive director you made a priority of professionalizing the staff. Why has that been so important and what has it allowed you to do?

A: At YPT we’ve created a staffing structure and company culture in which people can contribute themselves wholeheartedly to the work. Every staff member has an artistic or programmatic skill set and an administrative expertise. We work very hard to give each teaching artist, actor, director or designer the most  positive experience and  the support they need to do their work. This approach has paid extraordinary dividends, with all staff members now here four or more years, with a resident company of artists and educators well-versed in our work, and with budget surpluses the past four fiscal years. It’s amazing how much you can save if you streamline and optimize your use of human resources.  

Q: Describe the process you use to empower students through playwriting.

A: For many of our students, it’s the first time an adult has come into class and asked them what they think. It’s also the first time to really engage in class, tell their stories, and realize their own ability to engage the world with their writing. There’s a moment in every rehearsal when a student is there, giving notes to the actors, director, designers, "This is a little different than I envisioned but it’s better” or “you need to do this instead of that to do what I’m thinking,” when we stop everything and we say to the students, “Look around the room. Look at the 15-20 artists gathered. Everyone is here, working together, and receiving a paycheck, because you wrote what you wrote. Because you had that idea, crafted it, wrote it, revised it again and again and finished it, we’re all here today. You can do this. You can drive the world with your ideas.”

Q: How do you think arts education has changed over the last ten years?

A: The field has grown and become much better at showing how arts education supports and enhances student learning across curricula. Because time in schools is so tight, with a heavier emphasis than ever on preparing for standardized tests, organizations must be able to clearly and compellingly demonstrate their relevance, validity and value. There’s been a lot of back and forth the past ten years on arts integration vs. art for art’s sake. I tend to think of great art and great arts education as the same thing. Both should be interactive in some way. Both hopefully reveal something about yourself you didn’t know. And both leave you in some way changed. 

Q: How is YPT measuring its success?

A: YPT has worked with several outside evaluators over the years, developing rigorous evaluation and assessment tools aimed at demonstrating the impact of our programs while helping us to further develop our curricula. We can see that students’ critical and creative thinking improve dramatically during the program. We know that truancy rates drop on our program days and homework completion soars with our assignments.Teachers, students, and parents tell us how much the program has meant to them. For many of our students, it’s the first time an adult has come into class and asked them what they think. For us, the ultimate marker of success is when students tell us what the program has meant to them and say things like “I felt really proud of myself, like I achieved something.” That’s when we feel like we’re achieving something too.

Q: This is a challenging time for the arts. What are you doing to help change the conversation about the relevance of the arts when there are so many critical needs in our community?  

A: When we’re talking about cuts to shelter, food, and clothing providers, so many people, even in nonprofits, will say “well, it’s not like the arts are a human service.” To which I say (and said to the DC City Council last summer) the arts are a human service. As much as we need to eat, sleep, and clothe ourselves, we need to express ourselves. We need an outlet to share with our neighbors and the rest of the world what’s bothering us, how others can help us, and what we fear or dream of for our future. When we cut off self-expression, when we deny the inherent need to communicate and be heard, we see the frustration and violence that results: the school shootings, the fights in the hallway, the drop-out rates. Social media has again sparked in all of us the itch to be known, to see and be seen, to always be in touch. So as we’re ensuring that critical needs are met in these challenging times, I think we need to consider not only what will get us through the night, through the next month or next couple of years, but also what we want to look like when we get through it. What kind of society do we want to have? How will we know what people need if they can’t tell us? And how can we envision our future if we’re not able to dream?

2010 Exponent Award Nomination Deadline

The deadline for nominations for  the 2010 Meyer Foundation Exponent Awards is close of business on Tuesday, April 6. The Exponent Awards honor up to five exemplary nonprofit leaders who may be in danger of burnout or who would benefit from a leadership development grant to take their skills and organization to a new level. The award comes with a two-year grant of $100,000 for leadership development, which could include coaching, continuing education, or funds to strengthen the board and senior management team. For criteria and more information about the Exponent Award, click here.