Act Your Age! Acclaimed! Affordable! Age-Appropriate! Original Musicals & Dramedies  for Youth by  award-winning playwrights Evelyn Rudie & Chris DeCarlo (with Matt Wrather on dreamward, CAN'TEEN, & The Silver Key)

“We love Cabaret! We did My Fair Lady and Li’l Abner when we were in school. And we feel every young actor should participate in the classic theatre experience. We also recognize, however, a vital need for original material that speaks with the voice of youth, addressing both their personal and global issues in a theatrically innovative manner. The Young Professionals’ Company develops new works that explore contemporary as well as historical issues from a uniquely youth-oriented point of view, offering age-appropriate, challenging roles, flexibility in casting and design, and a spectacular track record that makes them easy to present to administrators and effortless to market to general audiences.”   - THE AUTHORS

The Plays

Dear Gabby—the confessions of an over-achiever (by Evelyn Rudie & Chris DeCarlo) “Outstanding...movingly articulates the loneliness and confusion of growing up ‘without an instruction booklet.’” Lynne Heffley, LA TIMES “It was revolutionary for my kids to see DEAR GABBY.”  B. Clough, Principal., Mid-City Alternative School “Magical!” COURIER NEWS, Stratford, England Performed in five countries on three continents, Dear Gabby is the longest continuously running teen dramedy in recent theatre history (11 ½ years straight), an interactive theatre experience, which explores such teen concerns as first love, peer pressure, rejection, relationships, drugs, cheating, self-esteem, and the passion and pain of piano lessons.  7 to 9 performers
	dreamward  (book, music & lyrics by E. Rudie & M. Wrather, with Chris DeCarlo) “An amazing production!” Mary King, Playbox Youth Theatre A musical exploration of dreams, decisions, danger, denial, divorce, and the fortunes told in the coffee-ground remains of double decaf cappuccino cups, a story of contemporary teenagers struggling to fulfill the unrealistic, media-induced expectations of a quick-fix society as they bound through adventures both comic and poignant in the chaotic no-man’s land between Clueless and Kids. Inspired by the works of  Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Brecht & Weill, Gertrude Stein and Jack Kerouac. 10 to 24 performers - 8 songs
Moonlight Madness!  (by Evelyn Rudie & Chris DeCarlo music and lyrics by E. Rudie) “More fun than Grease!” The Dream Factory, U.K. If your students enjoyed High School Musical, they’ll adore this original toe-tappin’, finger-snappin’, be-boppin’ musical comedy salute to love, laughter and lipstick – written long before Disney ever imagined doing a 50’s musical romp. Moonlight Madness is guaranteed to have everyone dancing in the aisles as teen idol “Johnnie Moonlight” gyrates his way into the lives of the cheerleaders, beatniks, Athenians, Olympians and Toughs of Beaverbrook High, and into your heart as well. Based on creator Evelyn Rudie’s own experiences at famed Hollywood High in Hollywood, California. 16 to 24 performers - 17 songs
	CAN’TEEN (book, by Evelyn Rudie & Chris DeCarlo, music & lyrics by E. Rudie & M. Wrather) “Uniformly excellent!” Palisadian Post A powerful musical that explores World War II from the unique perspective of teenagers and shares their responses to the changing world around them. This important and dramatic episode in American history is seemingly far removed from today’s youth – but this engaging musical proves otherwise. 7 to 10 performers - 5 songs
The Silver Key (book, music & lyrics by E. Rudie & M. Wrather, with Chris DeCarlo) "A spectacular piece of theatre" The Playhouse, Derry A very contemporary musical fairy tale populated with exotically non-traditional witches and fairy godmothers, feisty heroines, rock-music sorcerers and a host of colorful and fantastical creatures ferociously blurring the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Excellent opportunity for performer-generated costuming. 9 to 14 performers - 5 songs

The Authors

Evelyn Rudie & Chris DeCarlo...

have collaborated on more than 200 theatrical productions, including seventeen operettas, 100 theatre-for-youth plays and performance art pieces, 25 Family Theatre Musicals, and 35 adaptations and translations. Called “arguably the most talented and prolific producer-director-lyricist-composer-musician-actress in theatre,” by the LA Times, Evelyn has been performing since the age of three, when she made her stage debut as Macduff’s son in Macbeth. She won an Emmy nomination at six for her portrayal of Eloise on TV’s Playhouse 90, and is the youngest performer ever to have received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. She has appeared in more than 60 film and television shows, including The Groucho Marx Show, Wagon Train, 77 Sunset Strip, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Gift of Love, in which she co-starred with Lauren Bacall and Robert Stack.

Over a quarter of a million people have been touched by Chris DeCarlo’s award-winning characterizations of Sholom Aleichem, Mark Twain and Moliere. LA Times calls his work “thrilling”, and the AATE hails it as “Glorious!“ His directorial and dramaturgical projects include three of playwright Jerry Mayer’s long-running comedies, Jerry Sroka and John Fleming’s hit Dying For Laughs, Canadian playwright Michel Garneau’s controversial Quatre a Quatre, Brenda Krantz’s Lovely and Annie Reiner’s Mirage a Trois. Chris is currently the chair of the Performing Arts Committee for the Santa Monica Arts Commission. He is especially noted for his work with young actors, both in America, and in Japan, England and Ireland.

Chris and Evelyn have been acting, writing, directing and teaching non-stop over the entire course of their thirty two year partnership (they have been married for thirty of those years) and have been co-artistic directors of the renowned Santa Monica Playhouse since 1973. In addition, they have founded numerous programs, including the Actors’ Repertory Theatre, the Actors Workshop, the Young Professionals’ Company, the Young People’s Workshops, and the Family Theatre Musical Matinees. Under their aegis, the Playhouse has presented more than 500 productions and participated in nearly 40 international tours and cultural exchanges. They are especially renowned for their intensive creative work with more than 10,000 youth performers, out of which has come such critically acclaimed theatre-for-youth productions as Mezzanine, 1994, Adults, Keep Out!, Beginnings..., and the long-running Dear Gabby—the confessions of an over-achiever.
 

Matt Wrather...

has trained and performed for nearly a decade on three continents. At the Playhouse, he has won acclaim for his writing, composing and arranging for such originals as Moonlight Madness, The Silver Key and Can'teen, as well as its successful adaptations of Moliere and Sholom Aleichem. He was recently seen in Connecticut in a production of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming. As a musician, Matt has been studying since the age of five, and performing his own compositions since the age of eight. He has served as musical director and has influenced much of the musical material that has come out of the Playhouse over the last five years. With Evelyn Rudie, he created the bold musical dreamward, which had its international premiere in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1997, and the Playhouse’s recent hit musical Backstreet. Currently, Matt splits his time between the Playhouse and his studies at Yale University.