The Production of Youth by Youth (PYBY) is a free after-school program for young people, aged 16-21, who want to explore what it means to be a cultural producer.  PYBY provides its participants with an insider’s view of the Big Apple’s cultural industry, creating relationships that will impact on the future of its young participants and on the future of New York’s cultural development.

PYBY participants learn directly from some of New York City’s leading cultural producers.

Using the city as its campus,

• PYBY exposes its participants to the world of cultural production, bringing them behind the scenes to learn how theatre, television, music and the graphic arts are produced and distributed.
• PYBY combines workshops led by theatre, television and music producers, museum curators and gallery owners with site visits to theatres, studios, galleries, etc.
• PYBY participants also gain hands-on producing experience, working together over the 18-week semester to produce a cultural forum that brings together community people and professional cultural producers.
• Those who complete the program are eligible for placement in unpaid internships at cultural institutions and arts-related businesses throughout the city.

Production of Youth by Youth meets every Tuesday from 4:00 pm – 6:30 pm.  Applicants can participate in one of two 18-week semesters offered each year in the Fall (October – January) or the Spring (February – May).  Participants must attend all sessions and must actively work to produce a cultural forum at the end of the semester.

At PYBY’s 2007 Cultural Forum, Director Dan Friedman leads a panel discussion with student Cleon Barrett, Off-Broadway producer Scott Morfree, and community leader Debbie Rabinowitz.




Those who want to join PYBY should be interested the production of various forms of culture, eager to learn how things work in the world, hard and reliable workers, willing to try new things, take risks, speak up, make suggestions, and, at the same time, be willing to listen to criticism as part of the process of growth and development.




To join PYBY you must fill out and return its application form (along a 200-word essay on why you want join the program). An interview will follow.  Click here to download an application.

Dan Friedman, Ph.D., is the Director of Production of Youth By Youth He is a director, playwright, actor, dramaturg and teacher who has been involved in experimental, community-based theatre for 30 years.  For more information about the program, contact Dr. Friedman at (212) 356-8450 or dfriedman@allstars.org