Weekend of Wordplay

Saturday, April 01, 2023 | 10:00 a.m.

$0 | 925 13th St NW, Entrance on K Street

Join Planet Word as we celebrate a Weekend of Wordplay in conjunction with the North American School Scrabble Championship. Visitors will be invited to drop-in for a day of activities in Lexicon Lane. There will be Scrabble tactics and demonstrations throughout the day and hands-on wordplay game exploration with our friends from Labyrinth Games & Puzzles. Join Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak, in the Friedman Family Auditorium for “A Brief History of Scrabble” and a book reading with Q&A. If you feel inspired to bring home your own wordplay games that day, our gift shop, Present Perfect, will feature a Hasbro Game Display.

Labyrinth Games & Puzzles | Lexicon Lane | 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Labyrinth staff will be at Planet Word to lead word-gaming fun! Come play Composition (with the designer), Katootsie (with the designer), Codenames, Bananagrams, Just One, and more!

Among the Word Freaks | Friedman Family Auditorium | 11 a.m.
In his New York Times bestseller Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis took readers inside the intense and bizarre subculture of competitive Scrabble. More than 20 years later, he’s still writing about and playing the game. Join Fatsis for a reading and Q&A about the American classic invented by an out-of-work architect during the Depression and the world it spawned.

How to Play Scrabble Like a Pro | Lexicon Lane | 3 p.m.
Think you’re good at Scrabble because you scored 300 points and beat grandma at Thanksgiving? Think again. The classic board game is as strategic as chess and as complex as poker. Top experts Scott Appel and Eric Goldstein provide an over-the-board crash course in improving your Scrabble game.

Hands-on Wordplay sponsored by Hasbro & Bananagrams | Lexicon Lane | 10 a.m. – 5p.m.
Grab a friend and go bananas! Several board games will be available in Lexicon Lane for you and your group to sit down and enjoy a round of Scrabble or Bananagrams. Bananagrams has provided games in 4 languages — Spanish, French, Hebrew, and English.