Young Playwrights’ Theater

Young Playwrights’ Theater was founded by award-winning playwright Karen Zacarías in 1995. After earning an MFA in playwriting from Boston University, Karen returned to her hometown of Washington, DC. Seeking to use her art to impact her community, she began to teach playwriting workshops in DC Public Schools. Karen knew the impact creative writing could have on a young person’s sense of empowerment from her own childhood experiences of using storytelling to cope with bullying by humanizing her bullies and imagining different endings to their interactions. Seeing how playwriting had a positive impact on students’ literacy skills, sense of empathy, and personal self-image, Karen was inspired to expand her work, incorporating YPT as a nonprofit in 1997.