****** For the past six years I have been teaching a playwriting
class at The Harvey Milk High School here in New York City.It’s a Safe Haven/Transfer public school
with a focus on LGBTQ students.My
previous sponsors have passed the baton to me, and now, via a fiscal agency
non-profit called THE FIELD, I am raising money to continue our work at the
school.Your donation goes to pay
our instructors, give graduating seniors merit scholarships for college, and
pay professional actors to perform the student plays. Please help us keep this
life-changing program alive and flourishing. CLICK ON THE LINK TO DONATE.And check out the work THE FIELD is
doing while you’re at it.https://www.thefield.org/Profile.aspx?SAID=2971
THE HARVEY MILK HIGH SCHOOL/THE HETRICK-MARTIN INSTITUTE I have taught playwriting at this amazing place since 2008. It is a school for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and "At Risk" students. It is a New York City public charter school. The Hetrick-Martin Institute helps support and run it. My students every year inspire, excite and infuriate me. You never feel so alive as when you are in class full of teenagers. Especially LBGTQ kids.
Twice a year we present a public reading of the students' work, using actors from on and off Broadway, film, television and regional theatre. The kids get to hear their scenes, monologues, poems and plays read by professionals, surrounded by an audience of their peers and teachers. It's the highlight of my year. And the actors, once they've participated, instantly want to come back for the next presentation.
The presentation, and my work at the school, originally was sponsored by Jack Batman and Bruce Robert Harris of GAYFESTNYC, an organization dedicated to presenting the plays of gay and lesbian playwrights. These great men also donated college scholarships to graduating Harvey Milk students every spring.
It's an honor to work at Harvey Milk. Check out it and HMI below. And make a contribution if you can.