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Young Playwrights: One Hundred Sleepless Nights

'Mouthful' episode #1: A monologue about a young transgender man starts a conversation about gender identity. Featuring interviews with three trans and non-binary young people and trans actor and activist Scott Turner Schofield.

Over the next 10 weeks, Philly.com will host Mouthful, a podcast that features dramatic monologues highlighting the experiences and perspectives of young Philadelphians. These monologues, which are performed by professional actors, are produced by Philly Young Playwrights and Yvonne Latty, director of the Reporting the Nation program at NYU's Carter Journalism Institute.

All across the city and country, from kitchen tables to legislative halls, conversations about gender identity are front and center like never before. It's a polarizing topic that is often difficult to talk about even for those who are open-minded and want to be supportive. Two weeks ago, City Council voted unanimously on a resolution to officially declare March 31st Transgender Visibility Day in the City of Philadelphia. Two days later, a different kind of visibility rolled through City Hall in the form of a bus with anti-transgender language in large, plain-to-read letters plastered on its sides.

Complicated issues are better understood when people at the heart of the matter are given a chance to speak for themselves.

On this episode of Mouthful, a weekly podcast that places young people at the center of important issues, we create a space for trans and nonbinary voices, including conversations with:

  1. Hunter, a high school senior from North Philly, whose award-winning monologue about a trans youth was picked from hundreds of submissions as a winner in the Young Voices Monologue Festival

  2. Alex and Dalyla, two powerful young trans advocates from the Attic, Philadelphia's center for LGBTQ youth, and

  3. Scott Turner Schofield, trans actor, activist, and star of Bold and the Beautiful

Listen here [Warning: Explicit Language]