For Kids and Teens, It’s a Real Class Act

The arts are a great way to expand horizons and open up the world for young people, and a number of creative programs exist for all ages to participate in or enjoy as observers. Here are a few:

Is the play the thing for your teenage writer? If so, here’s a heads-up about the Blank Theatre Company’s “Fifth Annual Young Playwrights Festival.”

This award-winning adult theater company is accepting submissions through April 14 of original plays by writers ages 19 and under. Winning plays will receive public workshop productions by professional actors and directors over two nights in June. In addition, at least one winning play will be presented on the Blank’s mainstage as a full-scale production in August.

When the company produced last year’s winner, “Sky’s End,” on its mainstage, theater reviewer Jana J. Monji, writing in The Times, praised its 18-year-old playwright, Joseph Alan Drymala, as “a promising new talent in the musical theater world.”

Each winner is mentored by a professional writer who helps hone the work for performance. Playwrights whose work is selected for mainstage presentation receive the full professional treatment, from option agreements to royalties.

* Information: (213) 662-7734 or the company’s Web site:

https://www.primenet.com/~portal/

*

Kids and Plays: The younger set can learn to write all about it in L.A. Parent magazine’s second annual free playwriting seminars for ages 8 to 12, on April 19 and 26 at five locations to be announced in the Greater L.A. area.

Each 2 1/2-hour seminar will be led by a professional playwright who will guide budding writers in the mechanics of writing a one-act play. Kids will be encouraged to write a play of their own to enter in L.A. Parent’s upcoming Kids’ Playwriting Festival in which four to seven plays will be produced. (Kids don’t have to participate in the seminars to enter the festival.) Partners in the festival include A.S.K. Theater Projects and the Mark Taper Forum’s P.L.A.Y. Project.

Preregistration for the seminars is required; participation is limited to 20 kids per location.

* Parents can call the magazine’s playwriting hotline at (818) 846-0400, Ext. 253, for information.

*

Take a Look: You can see the results of youthful inspiration in two local exhibits: the Santa Monica Museum of Art’s “Covering Music,” which is subtitled “An Exhibition of Album Cover Art by Students From Olympic High School Under the Guidance of Artist Gloria Westcott,” and “Gateway to Hollywood,” at Barnsdall Art Park’s Junior Arts Center.

“Covering Music” features mixed-media album covers created by 11 teenagers who participated in the museum’s “Art Partners” classroom program, a hands-on introduction to the contemporary art process for “at-risk” students, according to the museum.

The exhibit runs now through June 1 in the museum’s Neighborhood Outreach Gallery on level three of Santa Monica Place in Santa Monica.

“Gateway to Hollywood” is a multimedia installation based on Hollywood themes created by students who participated in an 11-week course with New York artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles and the center’s instructor, Stuart Vaughan. It will be on view from Monday-May 25.

In addition, individual artworks by the students based on a fire theme have been incorporated into Ukeles’ project, “Unburning Freedom Hall,” part of the “Uncommon Sense” exhibition at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.

* “Covering Music: An Exhibition of Album Cover Art by Students From Olympic High School Under the Guidance of Artist Gloria Westcott,” Santa Monica Museum of Art, Neighborhood Outreach Gallery, level three of Santa Monica Place between 2nd and 4th streets. Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-6 p.m., (310) 394-5451.

“Gateway to Hollywood,” Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd.; gallery hours are Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Information about Junior Arts Center classes: (213) 485-4474.

*

Rhyme and Reason: Storyopolis in L.A. continues its weekly kid-friendly activity series with a third outing for its “Kids’ Poetry Cafe,” celebrating National Poetry Month, Saturday, beginning at 11:30 a.m.

At the poetry event, boys and girls are invited to step up to the microphone and share their favorite poems, original or not. (Berets and shades are optional.) The event also includes a “poetry kit craft” and readings.

There is a $6 craft participation fee. Craft reservations can be made by calling (310) 358-2512.

* Storyopolis, 116 N. Robertson Blvd., Plaza A (in the courtyard of the Pacific Theatres high-rise; free parking below the building). (310) 358-2500.