For Season Three of Mouthful, we'll be talking to ten student playwrights who are bringing their monologues to life for the 2019 Mouthful Monologue Festival. In this episode, we meet the 18 winning writers whose monologues will premiere for public audiences in just a few days. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS! If you're in the Philly area, you can catch all 18 monologues at a performance February 28-March 9 at the Louis Bluver Theater at the Drake. All performances are Pay What You Decide. Music: "Wavy Glass" and "Blossoming" by Podington Bear is licensed under CC BY-NC 3.0

Season Three is here, and we're kicking things off with two behind-the-scenes episodes. In this episode, we take a peek behind the curtain to learn what goes in to selecting the winning monologues. From 661 to 18–it's quite a task.

A monologue written from the perspective of Philadelphia, imploring its citizens to put down the guns, starts a conversation about gun violence. Featuring conversations with Tyler Riddick, a senior at the U School who wrote the monologue after her friend was killed by a stray bullet; Jose Ferran, a peer intervention specialist at Healing Hurt People who survived a gunshot to the arm in 2011; Leonard Chester, founder of The Overcame Foundation; and Jerrick Medrano, who performs the monologue and opens up about his own experiences with gun violence.

A monologue about a young man who is turned away from his first job interview starts a conversation about how we treat individuals on the autism spectrum and how we prepare them for work and independence. Featuring conversations with Dylan Henry, a sophomore at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, whose younger brother inspired the monologue; and three individuals from Project SEARCH, a program that offers vocational training and internships to young adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

A monologue about a young woman grappling with her identity after a friend is attacked starts a conversation about being Muslim in America. Featuring conversations with the writer Ruya Erkut, a freshman at George Washington Carver, and her mother, Ebru Erkut, who works as a paralegal at an immigration firm. This is a personal episode about growing up and parenting as a Muslim in the current, fraught political climate.

A monologue about a young man sharing some news with his mother starts a conversation about coming out. Featuring conversations with Lisbet Espinal, a sophomore at the Philadelphia Military Academy, who wrote “Breaking Barriers” to address a problem she perceives in her community, and with Francisco Cortes, Interim Executive Director or GALAEI, a queer Latinx social justice organization.

A monologue about claiming and reclaiming power over one's body starts a conversation about sexual harassment. Featuring conversations with Dori Hoffman, a high school junior who wrote her monologue "War Paint" after four years of silence about her own experience of sexual harassment; and Nuala Cabral, a filmmaker, educator, and activist dedicated to teaching consent and confronting sexual harassment in all its forms.

A monologue about a girl getting her period for the first time starts a conversation about puberty, menstruation, and what it means to enter the next stage of your life. Featuring conversations with Kaltra Zabiku, whose monologue "The Initiation" inspired this episode; and with Nadya Okamoto, who has become a leading voice in the Menstrual Movement since she started PERIOD, an organization that provides feminine hygiene products to those in need.

A monologue about young Chinese American grappling with her cultural identity and embarrassment about her inability to speak Chinese starts a conversation about the challenges of being a first generation American. Featuring conversations with Donna Zhang, a senior at Drexel University whose monologue "A Last Stroll Through Pain" inspired this episode; Rebecca, Faith, and Nikita, three first generation Americans; and Raquel Salas Rivera, a Philadelphia transplant from Puerto Rico and the  2018-19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.

A monologue about the stresses of being a teenager starts a conversation about teen stress and teen resilience. Recorded live at the Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake, this episode features conversations with: Brittany Blythe, a senior at Lankenau High School; Kay'Stienna Carter, a junior at Benjamin Franklin High School; Ericka Morris, educational consultant; and Dr. Ken Ginsburg, a pediatrician specializing in Adolescent Medicine at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.