YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
WINNERS OF THE 32ND ANNUAL YPF WILL
BE ANNOUNCED BY APRIL 30, 2024!
Each summer, we produce the 12 best plays by playwrights ages 9 to 19, chosen from a nationwide competition. In the past 30 years, we have produced 381 plays by these young writers. 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 YPF EXPERIENCE
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."
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 only Los Angeles County, has become a month-long festival of 12 plays professionally staged for full weekend runs, with submissions from as many as 37 different states from across the country thus far!
The 12 winning plays are professionally produced in Hollywood, CA with professional directors and actors. Each show receives four public performances.
As a result of winning YPF, these exciting writers all make their professional stage debuts in Los Angeles. Along with 381 others over the years.
ADD YPF TO YOUR LIBRARY
Concord Theatricals has published "The Blank Theatre's Young Playwrights Festival 30th Anniversary Collection," an anthology of six plays from the 2022 YPF! You can purchase the book at concordsho.ws/ShopTheBlank30th, and the plays are also available to license for performance. The featured plays are written by 2022 winners:
The Legend of Caeneus by Zander Pryor, age 18
stand. Up. HIT! by Wyn Alyse Thomas, age 18
Gray Area by Simone Chaney, age 17
Dollface by Jeremino Sutton, age 17
Droplets, Pellets, Bullets by Isabel Beatriz Tongson, age 18
Under My Skin by Disha Catt, age 16
LEARN MORE
ABOUT YPF
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The Blank Theatre is committed to the enrichment of Hollywood’s cultural life through production of first-rate theatre, education of current and future artists, and creation of groundbreaking new works for the theatrical repertoire companies in America.