OUR 30TH ANNIVERSARY IS HERE!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!

Weekly streams have concluded but don't worry!

You can see them all through the end of August v2022 with a ONE TIME registration Festival Pass! See all 12 winning plays!

WEEK 1

UNDER MY SKIN
by Disha Catt, age 16, Kirkland, WA
MENTOR: Tessa Williams
DIRECTOR: Jillian Terwedo

Two sets of mothers and daughters explore coming of age, identity, independence and friendship while bra shopping.

LEMON
by Cady Walls, age 17, Snellville, GA
MENTOR: Bob DeRosa
DIRECTOR: Tor Brown

An absurdist examination of sexuality, gender and marriage told with educational citrus. Vibrant, brisk, sour and hilarious.

STAND. UP. HIT!
by Wyn Alyse Thomas, age 18, Buffalo Grove, IL
MENTOR: Beth Bigler
DIRECTOR: Danielle Ozymandias

A self-defense class and the mantras they share helps guide a young woman through the questions faced when trying to discern when an unwanted contact crosses the line and deserves a response.

WEEK 2

I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER
by Spencer Emerson Opal-Levine, age 19, Sarasota, FL
MENTOR: Ellen Byron
DIRECTOR: Angela Oh

This slice of life explores the relationship between the elderly Harriette, who's mental state is in decline and the memories she still has of her husband, daughter, and moments in time.

GRAY AREA
by Simone Chaney, age 17, Interlochen, MI
MENTOR: June Carryl
DIRECTOR: Shelli Boone

Two sisters share a bathroom and their conversation gets serious when family differences are discussed, and realities confronted, profoundly, and directly, in the most honest teenage tone.

THE LEGEND OF CAENEUS
by Zander Pryor, age 19, Dallas, TX
MENTOR: Jonathan Tolins
DIRECTOR: Melissa Coleman-Reed

Caeneus leaves his mother, Hippea, as a daughter and returns as her son and the object of Poseidon's interest. As Caeneus explores the world and those who control it, he comes to see that others will accept and love him for who he is.

WEEK 3

SO-FISH-TICATED
by Ava Ditto, age 17, San Antonio, TX
MENTOR: Arthur M. Jolly
DIRECTOR: Jefferson Reid

A fisherman and a fish realize they have a history that set them both on a path to discovering friendship and purpose in the most unlikely circumstance.

HERE'S TO ALL THE BROKEN GIRLS
by Elizabeth Shannon (ELLIS), age 18, New York, NY
MENTOR: Jenna Martin
DIRECTOR: June Carryl

Five graduates recall their time at The School of St. Cecilia and the abuses they experienced, creating a rich depiction of the potential viciousness of adolescent friendship and its greater possibilities.

DOLLFACE
by Jeremino Sutton, age 17, San Antonio, TX
MENTOR: Aliza Goldstein
DIRECTOR: Michael Shepperd

A subway ride unravels when a woman helps a life-size, sentient, yarn doll repair a slash on their leg, while exploring all the identities we knit into our selves.

WEEK 4

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT AND OTHER WILD FROG FACTS
by Alethea Shirilin-Howlett, age 19, Jamesville, NY
MENTOR: Gary Tieche
DIRECTOR: Laura Stribling

A writer, a doctor, a science teacher, a student and a Congresswoman discuss loss and untimely death with an animatronic frog during the reading of a will at a children's themed cafe.

DROPLETS PELLETS BULLETS
by Isabel Beatriz Tongson, age 18, Winter Park, FL
MENTOR: Lee Sherman
DIRECTOR: Andrea Fiorentini Del Río

Droplets Pellets Bullets conceptually explores the phenomenon of false memories as often experienced by students and teachers who witness school shootings and recall vivid memories of the event that conflict with evidentiary accounts.

WEEK 5 - SPECIAL YPF+ AWARD

VENUS, AND WHAT ELSE IS NOCTURNAL
by Dylan Malloy, age 18, Aliso Viejo, CA
MENTOR: Kit Steinkellner
DIRECTOR: Victoria Hoffman

Jude has become shut in and isolated following the death of his brother, Liam, the hometown hero. Liam and Jude both admired and adored one another so much that Liam's absence drives Jude into an obsession with weather, water and chat rooms trying to discern if his feelings are rooted in grief, science or cosmic destiny.

View the WEEK 1 Digital Program Booklet Here!

View the WEEK 2 Digital Program Booklet Here!

View the WEEK 3 Digital Program Booklet Here!

View the WEEK 4 Digital Program Booklet Here!

View the WEEK 5 Digital Program Booklet Here!

View the Young Playwrights Festival 2017 Short Documentary

For more information: info@theblank.com

About the Festival

Every summer, The Blank Theatre produces the 12 best plays by playwrights ages 9 to 19, chosen from a nationwide competition.

In the past 29 years, we've produced 357 plays by these young writers. Winning playwrights are provided careful mentoring and direction from industry professionals to help prepare their work for public performance and hone their skills, talent and confidence.

Nowhere else in the nation can young playwrights receive the prize of seeing their vision come to life on stage in a professional production featuring known actors from film, television and theatre. The plays are crafted by seasoned professional directors and each is given several public performances in a month-long Festival.

The Festival plays a critical role in training and supporting the next generation of theatre artists. There are no submission fees for this program.

This Festival is unique in the United States. While there may be other young playwrights programs, YPF differs from the rest in two ways:

(1) we fully produce the winning plays, and

(2) we provide the playwrights a professional experience from beginning to end; they are never considered “students,” they are the playwrights.

What began in 1993 as a one night only reading, with scripts submitted from Los Angeles County, has become a month-long festival of 12 plays professionally staged for full weekend runs, with submissions from 36 different states.

YPF plays a critical role in training and supporting the next generation of theatre artists. Many of these playwrights have gone on to successful writing careers in and out of the theatre. As we say in our curtain speech each evening, ''These kids are the future of the theatre. If we don't support their work today, we won't have a generation of artists tomorrow."

Under the direction of The Blank’s Founding Artistic Director Daniel Henning, The Blank’s Annual Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival will be presented at the LA City College Theatre Academy in Hollywood, CA in June.

Rehearsals also take place at The Blank’s 2nd Stage Theatre in Hollywood. The 12 winning plays are professionally produced for weekend-long runs.

As a result of winning YPF, these exciting writers all made their professional stage debuts in Los Angeles. Along with 357 others over the years.

Festival Rules

DEADLINE: Plays or musicals must be submitted online, e-mailed or postmarked by MARCH 15, 2022.

FEES: There are no fees for submitting your work to the Festival.

ELIGIBILITY: Playwrights must be 19 years old or younger on March 15, 2022; co-written plays are allowed, provided all writers meet age requirement.

CONTENT: Original plays or musicals on any subject and any length.

LIMIT: Up to 3 plays per playwright or playwright team.

FORMAT: All plays must have a cover sheet, title page and numbered script pages.

COVER SHEET: The Cover Sheet must include

Title
Playwright Name
Playwright Date of Birth (with year)
Playwright Age
Playwright E-Mail Address
Playwright Contact Phone Number
Playwright Mailing Address
School Name and Teacher (if applicable)

NO RETURNS: Scripts will not be returned so please do not send originals.

NOTIFICATION: We will contact Festival Competition winners in April 2022.

PERFORMANCE: Winning plays will be performed by professional actors in Summer 2022.

SUBMIT ONLINE: Browse to theblank.submittable.com, create a FREE account and follow the instructions to submit your play(s) and cover sheet.

SUBMIT BY E-MAIL: Send play(s) and cover sheet as PDF with play title in subject line to: ypfsubmissions@theblank.com

SUBMIT BY MAIL: Send unbound play(s) and cover sheet to:
Young Playwrights Festival
c/o The Blank Theatre
PO Box 1094
Los Angeles, CA 90078

Winner Alumni

The Young Playwrights Festival magnifies the voices of our youth not only by presenting their interpretations of the world, but by also channeling their vision into the public consciousness.

In the past many years, the decrease in arts funding at schools has made the arts even less accessible to children, and made a career in the arts seem next to impossible for them. YPF works to bridge this gap by providing students with the opportunity to be fully immersed in an artistic production, to have their unique voices heard on a national level, and to be introduced to the professional Theatre world.

The Festival plays a critical role in training and supporting the next generation of theatre artists including these notable alumni:

Victor Kaufold, a YPF winner, tackled the issue of school shootings in The Why which was then produced on our Mainstage for which Victor earned an Ovation Award nomination for “Best Writing-World Premiere” at 19 years old. Victor went on to work in the writers room for the Showtime series, The Affair.

Lauren Yee, a two-time YPF inner, is having her plays produced all across the country and has won: the prestigious Doris Duke Artist Award, LA Drama Critics Circle Ted Schmitt Award (for Cambodian Rock Band), Kesselring Prize, ATCA/Francesca Primus Prize winner (for in a word), KCACTF’s Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting (for Ching Chong Chinaman) and many many more. Lauren was the 2nd most produced playwright in the nation for the 2019-2020 theatrical season.

Austin Winsberg, a five-time winner, recently had his musical First Date open on Broadway this season and adapted the highly-successful The Sound of Music Live! on NBC. He went on to serve as a writer and producer on Gossip Girl and Jake in Progress, as well as showrunner on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. Austin currently serves as showrunner and Executive Producer on Apple TVs Acapulco.

Oanh Ly, another YPF winner, went on to serve as a writer and producer on hit TV shows including Criminal Minds, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Revolution.

Kit Steinkellner, a three-time winner, wrote for the Amazon Prime original Z: The Beginning of Everything and is the creator of the hit Facebook Watch series Sorry for Your Loss.

Liza Kaplan, a three-time winner, went on to graduate from New York University and developed a fabulous career in editing, now serving as Senior Editor at Penguin Random House in New York.

Lindsey Rosin, another former winner, served as a writer on the TV movie Cruel Intentions and as a writer for the hit series Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. She is currently writing and developing a new series titled Death is my BFF, for SyFy.

Beth Bigler, a two-time YPF winner, has worked in script writing and development with Lionsgate, Machete Productions, Bravo, Discovery, OWN, TLC, LOGO, ABC, CBS and more, and is now a screenwriting instructor with the New York Film Academy as well as serving as the Creator and Program Director for The Blank's Young Playwrights Academy!

Max Friedlich, another two-time winner, has developed projects for FX, SONY Animation, AMC, and a feature for Riley Keough. In theatre, he's the director of the IAMA "Under 30 Playwrights Lab" and was formerly a writer in residence at New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theatre Development Center.

Aliza Goldstein was a three-time winner whose work has been produced across the nation, including at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. She has been awarded the 2013 John Golden Prize for Undergraduate Playwriting, the 2015 Ebell of Los Angeles Playwright Prize, and the 2017 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Ted Schmitt Award for the World Premiere of an Outstanding New Play.

Max Posner, another two-time winner, went on to graduate from the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Juilliard and has been recognized with other awards including: Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Heideman Award and two Lecomte du Nouy Awards from Lincoln Center.

Gabriel Neustadt, a two-time YPF winner, went on to graduate from Harvard University magna cum laude. He is also a two-time finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and a finalist for both the Ashland New Plays Festival and Sundance Episodic Story Lab. Gabe wrote a feature for 3311 Productions and has written for AGC Studios and director Yuval Adler (The Secrets We Keep), showrunner Daniel Cerone (Dexter), and producer Greg Shapiro (The Hurt Locker).

And most impressively, Stephen Karam, a three-time YPF winner, was a 2012 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his play Sons of the Prophet. Karam later won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play for The Humans.

As a result of winning YPF, these exciting writers all made their professional stage debuts in Los Angeles. Along with 357 others over the years.

Of all the work we do at The Blank, it is our nationwide Young Playwrights Festival that is creating the greatest long-term impact on the future of theatre.

The Blank Theatre’s Annual Young Playwrights Festival brings attention to Los Angeles as an important creator of new theatrical artists and work, gives young people a chance to have their unique voices heard in a professional setting, and gives audiences a glimpse into these young hearts and minds — as well as the thrill of seeing future Pulitzer Prize Finalists and Broadway librettists in their first professional productions.

The Young Playwrights Festival brings a national audience to Los Angeles and builds the Future of Theatre at the same time. This program is designed to sustain the art of Theatre for future generations.