Thirty years ago, Ricardo Morris, a graduate student at what was then the Yale School of Drama, came up with a creative way to connect with New Haven youth living just outside campus. With the drama school’s support, he started a program that offered young students the opportunity to receive training and mentorship in the art of playwriting at Yale.
Called the Dwight/Edgewood Project (D/EP) for the two New Haven neighborhoods it serves, the program is stronger than ever, three decades later. With support from David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and Yale Repertory Theatre, D/EP links fifth and sixth graders from the Barnard Environmental Science and Technology School with graduate students in David Geffen School of Drama for an intensive program stretching over four weeks in May and June. The program, which is held after school, is free for all participants.
“These 30 years are the culmination of Ricardo’s vision and the stewardship of many dedicated leaders, including Ruth M. Feldman and the late Emalie A. Mayo,” who ran the program for more than a decade before her sudden passing last year, said Maya Louise Shed, the program’s current executive director and a 2025 graduate of the M.F.A. theater management program.
Playwright Angel Morales, in the banana suit, watches a performance of his play at Yale’s Off-Broadway Theater.
This year’s cohort included five Barnard students, each of whom worked with two graduate mentors every afternoon as they brainstormed plots, tried their hands at stage lighting and directing, and talked through possible set designs and costumes. Midway through the program, they got their creative juices flowing during a three-day writing retreat at Camp Wightman, in Griswold, Connecticut.
“D/EP was started to build confidence in the playwrights, to encourage them to speak up for themselves,” said Jocelyn Lopez-Hagmann, the program’s general manager and an M.F.A. candidate in theater management. “They each write a 10-minute play, and it’s produced fully here at Yale. That’s something that they can take with them and cherish forever. These are students who don’t often get these kinds of opportunities, and it’s just so fulfilling, for us and for them.”
Students are asked to write plays with two characters, both non-humans — to “push students to use their imagination and creativity, to think outside the box,” Lopez-Hagmann said.
The graduate students rehearse the plays, seeking feedback from the playwrights, and then perform them in their entirety at the program’s conclusion. This year’s plays were presented at Yale’s Off-Broadway Theater on June 20 and 21.
Jeremy Fuentes, an M.F.A. candidate in acting who served as a mentor this year, said watching the young artists’ creativity and imagination bloom was truly inspiring. But the experience also resonated with him on a more personal level.
“For me it was very important to be a part of this project because I was a person throughout my early years who did not have the opportunity to play a lot,” he said. “I had a lot of responsibilities when it came to my family life. My goal with this program was to, yes, really uplift these artists, but it was also to find some sort of healing for myself. To really come back to home, to find myself being in that room and playing as if I was 11 or 12.”
Last year, D/EP sponsored a conference and reunion event, which brought more than 50 former staff members and playwrights together in New Haven to share stories, celebrate successes, and plan for future years.
“Seeing different generations of New Haven residents, Yale alumni, and artists from across the country come together because of D/EP and the impact it had on them made it clear that Ricardo’s original goal was being realized,” said Shed, the program’s executive director. “The Dwight/Edgewood Project has indeed successfully served as a connector between New Haven and Yale.”
