Wordstock, a local celebration of language and the written word, started Monday and will run through this Friday in conjunction with the 38th Annual Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.

Originally started in 2001, Wordstock's purpose is to showcase local, regional and national poets, writers and other creative people.

Elaine Meder, co-owner of Webster's Bookstore Café, 128 S. Allen St., and Wordstock 2004 coordinator, said she really loves how much the festival has grown during its three-year tenure.

"I really think it rounds out the Arts Festival to have a language festival," Meder said. "It's just fun."

Most of the events will take place outside of Webster's or at its warehouse, 133 S. Allen St., which
is located underneath Chili's Grill & Bar, 137 S. Allen St.

Even though Meder said this year's Wordstock festival features many excellent performances and creative opportunities, she still cannot wait for one of her favorite parts of the festival: the spontaneous poetry booth, which benefits The Women's Resource Center. People can donate a dollar, and the volunteer poets will write a poem on the spot, after the writers
are given a couple words or an idea from the customer.

Other events featured in the past that are still happening this year are Singer-Songwriter showcases, which happen at 7 p.m. every night at Webster's, and the Poetry Slam competition, which started Tuesday and will be finishing through the festival.

One special event this year is Get the Word Out!, which will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at Webster's warehouse. Get the Word Out! will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender poetry, and a special speaker Kelli Dunham.

Amy Madison (sophomore-liberal arts), who lives in State College and helped plan Get the Word Out!, said she feels a language festival is important to have.

"What Wordstock does is put [literature] center stage," she said. "So that people who don't know what [State College] has in terms of literature can see it. I think it brings people together around the art."

Another special event this year that was held in years past is Playmakers, in which actors, playwrights and directors will meet at Webster's warehouse Friday night and will return the next night with three freshly written and arranged plays to be performed.

Pamela Monk, local playwright and College of Communications professor, came with the idea to Meder, and both thought it would work to showcase local talent. Originally, Monk heard of the idea when she participated in one of the 24-hour playwrighting, directing and acting sprees in Philadelphia, where it was called Fly-by-Night.

The goal of Playmakers is to have the playwright write a play specifically for the actors chosen at random, and have the play ready to be performed by Saturday night.

"You don't really worry about the finished product," Monk said. "It's about the ideas that come out. I think that people are surprised ... that a play can be written and dramatic tension can be made in twenty-four hours."

Also, Monk said it is a great experience for the writers, because they are presented with an interesting challenge, and are not really met with abundant criticism.

"It's brand new stuff, you never know what's coming out," Monk said. "There's no pressure to make people laugh, because you end up doing it."

Because Playmakers is a family event, all of the material ends up being G-rated, which presents another challenge for the writers to keep their material within a specific age range.

"And even under those parameters, you get some amazing things," Monk said. "Maybe it won't become a Broadway show, but it's still a lot of fun."

As an example of Playmakers'overall humor and feel, last year there was a performance in which one of the actors was a little girl who only wanted to wear a tiger suit -- and the playwright made sure that she was used in the script. Apparently, her character, fittingly, was named "tiger girl," and the audience loved it.

Also, another script was written for one guy and one girl, but there was a problem: the actors, who are chosen at random, were two guys.

"They just played it against gender," Monk said. "It was hysterically funny."

This year's Playmakers most likely will be no different.

And Meder said events like Playmakers are what Wordstock is all about: showcasing local talent.

"All these creative people need venues for this creativity," Meder said.

For more information and the event schedule, visit Wordstock's Web site at www.wordstockfestival.org.