Thank you again for your support of the NOW! creative education programs. Here’s an update from us!

1) NOW! play performances (February 2010)

NOW! partnered with Katimavik (www.katimavik.org) Vancouver to bring creative sustainability education to elementary schools and Katimavik program volunteers. Under the mentorship of Shawn MacDonald, a playwright and director at the Vancouver Arts Club, the Katimavik Vancouver troupe brought engaging performances of the 2008-2009 Act NOW! National Playwriting Competition junior category winning play “The Essay” to ~400 kids in Richmond, BC: Errington Elementary, W.D. Ferris Elementary, and McKinley Elementary. Thank you Beau Llewellyn and Marco Adamovic from Katimavik for an amazing opportunity to connect with dedicated youth volunteers from across Canada. We look forward to further collaboration with Katimavik!

2) Upcoming NOW What? conferences (May 2010):

• NOW What? Conference – Cochrane Edition

• Resourceful Thinking

3) 2nd annual Act NOW! Playwriting Competition (September 2009 – March 2010)

Entry submission was closed on March 31st, 2010. Decision from our judging panel will be announced on Earth Day, 22 April 2010. Outstanding entries will be posted on our website.  Here are the stats:

23 participants
Average age: 19
Average number of pages: 14

12 communities
Toronto, ON (3)
Markham, ON (1)
Mississauga, ON (1)
Anmore, BC (1)
Richmond, BC (1)
Surrey, BC (2)
Coquitlam, BC (1)
Burnaby, BC (2)
Vancouver, BC (8)
Lanley, BC (1)
Odejaye, Nigeria (1)
Hampstead, QC (1)

19 entries
Senior entries (age 19-26): 8
Junior entries (age 14-18): 11

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Next Steps:

- putting together the 2010-2011 NOW! team (Join our team)
- exciting collaboration opportunities with educators, students, community leaders, organizations, and institutions to take the impact of NOW! creative sustainability programs to the next level

Thank you again for your time, and happy holidays! :]

Sincerely,

The NOW! Team

Please take check out our fall play performances!

More details to come!

YOUTH SUSTAINABILITY PLAY PREMIERES IN VANCOUVER

Surrey-based youth theatre group debuts 16-year-old’s Act NOW! National Playwriting Competition winning entry to an audience of 300.

Vancouver, BC, Canada – 300 students and teachers at the Charles Dickens Elementary school cheered and applauded to a stunning premiere of the Act NOW! National Playwriting Competition junior category winning play The Essay.

“I was very impressed with the presentation and so were the staff and students,” praised Diane Lezlee Martinson, Vice Principal of Charles Dickens Elementary. “The actors did a superb job in their roles and the students’ attention was held for the entire performance.”

The imaginative winning entry The Essay was written by Olivia Rempel, a 16-year-old homeschooled student from Abbotsford, BC. Competition judges commended her play as informative and “written in a natural, unpretentious way, full of humour.”

The play performance was directed by Trisha Dulku, a grade 12 student at Fleetwood Park Secondary School. Her theatre group, aptly coined the Jai Ho! Theatre Troupe, consists of young volunteers passionate about sustainability: Fleetwood Park Secondary School students Taylor Harrison, Matthew Furtado, Fara Shah, Nesan Furtado, Kristina Dosanjh, and Jackson Chu, and Simon Fraser University World Literature major Ravi Sall. More performances of the sustainability play by the Jai Ho! Theatre Troupe will follow in the fall.

Two months ago on Earth Day, teenagers Mitchell Agostinho and Olivia Rempel won the 2008-2009 Act NOW! National Playwriting Competition, Canada’s first ever national playwriting competition on sustainability for youth. As promised, along with $200 in prizes, their winning plays will be performed across Canada at schools, festivals, community centres, and other locations by local theatre groups from June 2009 through October 2010 to an estimated audience of 10,000. Mitchell Agostinho will direct his own troupe to perform his senior category winning play The Highschool Environmental starting November 2009.

The first of its kind to challenge Canadian youth to evaluate issues in sustainability and devise interdisciplinary solutions, the competition is organized by the NOW! Organization in collaboration with diverse local and national groups.

Adds one of the competition judges, Lars Rose, a University of British Columbia Materials Engineer working at the National Research Council, “This competition is an extraordinary way of combining arts and science, and of expressing environmental concerns in a creative, educational effort; the plays are a must-see for everyone.”

About the NOW! Organization
Founded in 2006, the NOW! Organization is dedicated to bridging people from diverse backgrounds to sculpt creative, holistic solutions toward social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Run entirely by youth volunteers, the NOW! team implements innovative and grassroots programs to inspire youth, pique ideas and discussions, and spark action.

2008-2009 Act NOW! National Playwriting Competition Partners:
David Suzuki Foundation
Let’s Talk Science National Partnership Program
Environmental Youth Alliance
The Otesha Project
Global Agents for Change
Sierra Youth Coalition

Media Contact:
Janny Ke
The NOW! Organization
www.now-org.com
janny.ke@now-org.com
604-339-1251

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