West Palm Beach's premiere resident professional theatre, Palm Beach Dramaworks, is proud to announce the 2nd annual "Emerging Artists Showcase" featuring Dreyfoos School of the Arts  graduating senior class students, Wednesday through Friday, April 27th, 28th and 29th, 2011 (7PM). This year's performances will take place at the Brandt Black Box Theatre at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts  in West Palm Beach. All tickets are $10.

About 30 student actors will be performing monologues, scenes, and songs from both popular and new works, including some that the students wrote themselves. Members of the South Florida theatre and film community are encouraged to attend and support South Florida's newest generation of performers.

The Emerging Artists Showcase is another example of Palm Beach Dramaworks' continued association with West Palm Beach's acclaimed Dreyfoos School of the Arts . Throughout the school year, the theatre company provides internship and special programming opportunities for theatre students, and Dramaworks senior staff members mentor students and teach master classes. William Hayes, Dramaworks' Producing Artistic Director, who has led many of these master classes, says "I have a responsibility to foster talent, teach these kids and take them under our wing. The reason I'm in this business is because a teacher believed in me and guided me."

Directed by Ken Kay, a Carbonell award  winning director with a rich history in South Florida theatre and current Producing Artistic Director of the Blowing Rock Stage Company in North Carolina, the entire production process is designed to mimic professional theatre. Students are expected to follow Equity rules and they receive a hands-on "real world" experience. Beverly Blanchette, dean of the Dreyfoos theatre department says "It raises the stakes for the kids because it's not the teachers here making the decisions. We're trying to give them their first professional experience from the auditions through to the performance."