YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
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.
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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.