Alleyway Teen Theatre Ensemble

Summer Theatre Making Year 13!

UPCOMING SESSIONS BEGIN ON

Jul 6, 2026

9:00 am

Jul 27, 2026

9:00 am

‍CREATE YOUR OWN PLAY

Another summer of new theatre! Playwrights and educators Jon Elston and Bella Poynton bring their talents to two two-week intensives in summer 2026
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PERFECT FOR STUDENTS WHO…

Enjoy improv and theatre games
Like to write or create their own stories
Aspire to be serious theatre artists (actors, directors, or playwrights)
Love to laugh and meet new friends!

DETAILS

Mondays thru Fridays, 9am - 3:30pm
For all students age 11-17

Session 1: July 6 - 17, 2026 (Final performance Friday July 17 @ 7:00pm on the Alleyway Mainstage)
Session 2: July 27 - August 7, 2026 (Final performance: Friday August 7 @ 7:00pm on the Alleyway Mainstage)

TUITION

The total cost of Alleyway Teen Theatre Ensemble is $650 per student per session. Your deposit is non-refundable. The remaining balance will be due May 1, 2026.
If you register before December 31, 2025, the cost for a single session will be $550, or $1,000 for both sessions.

‍This program has supported the creativity of middle and high school theatre artists, empowering young theatre makers to create and produce 100% original new world-premiere comedies, dramas, and musicals. Learn and grow as artists while you devise, write, and develop a full-length evening of original work for the Alleyway mainstage!

A limited amount of partial scholarships are available annually to those students in need. Please contact us to inquire, or reach out to make a contribution to the scholarship fund to make our classes more accessible to all WNYers!

Jon Elston and Bella Poynton

JON ELSTON is a career educator and the award-winning author of over thirty plays and musicals. In 2002 Elston co-founded Buffalo's Road Less Traveled Productions, where he supported the development of hundreds of new plays and the production of nearly forty world premieres by WNY playwrights. His own plays have been produced in Buffalo, New York City, Washington, D.C., and online. He has taught and directed at the University of Buffalo, Niagara University, Medaille College, NCCC, Villa Maria, and the University of Omaha, as well as in WNY schools as a theatre instructor and certified ELA teacher.

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BELLA POYNTON is a playwright, director, and theatre scholar from Buffalo, NY. She was a Regional Playwriting Resident at Road Less Traveled Productions in 2016, and is the director of Queen City Playwrights, Buffalo’s New Play Development Workshop for area writers. Bella's plays have been produced and developed at New World Stages, The Bechdel Group, MadLab Theatre, Quantum Dragon Theatre, Alleyway Theatre, Looking Glass Theatre, The Great Plains Theatre Festival, The Pittsburgh New Works Festival, Road Less Traveled Productions, 3rd Act Theatre Company, Otherworld Theatre Company, and Post-Industrial Productions. Bella has been a finalist for the Christopher Brian Wolk Playwriting Award, the Heideman Award, the Woodward/Newman Drama Award, the Sam French OOB Festival, and the Maxim Mazumdar Playwriting Competition.

Recently, Bella’s short play The Offer was published in The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2019 (Smith & Krauss) and her play Eleven Thing that Almost Happened to Rick and Hannah, and One thing that Actually Did is included in The Best American Short Plays 2018-2019 (Applause Publishing). Bella is a co-editor of Interventions at Contemporary Theatre Review, the literary manager of Post-Industrial Productions, and the Graduate Liaison for the Mid America Theatre Festival’s Playwriting Symposium. Bella holds a BFA in Acting from Boston University, an MFA in Playwriting from The Iowa Playwrights Workshop and is currently PhD candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies at SUNY Buffalo. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Humanities at Medaille College.