Blank Theatre Company’s Young Playwrights Festival Now Accepting Submissions

The Blank Theatre Company's Young Playwrights Festival is now seeking submissions nationwide from playwrights 19 years of age and younger. Submission deadline is March 15, 2011. Winning plays will be presented by professional actors and directors from June 2-26, 2011 at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood, CA.

Now in its 19th year, The Blank Theatre Company's Young Playwrights Festival is a nationwide competition that produces the work of eight to twelve teenaged playwrights each year. Since 1993, the festival has produced 208 plays by playwrights 19 and younger from over 25 states.

Each winning play will have five performances in a weekend run. The productions are made possible in part by grants from The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Plum Foundation, The John and Marilyn Wells Family Trust, Los Angeles County Arts Commission and City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Hollywood's Blank Theatre Company has had its work featured on MSNBC, CNN Showbiz Today, Entertainment Tonight, BBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR, in Entertainment Weekly magazine, and in the Financial Times of London.

"Every year I am amazed at the depths to which these teenagers go in their writing. They are brave, bold and uninhibited," said Noah Wyle (star of television's ER), Artistic Producer at The Blank. "The winners are thrilled to see their plays presented by professionals, but these professionals are often given a great gift in return: a renewed sense of artistic purpose. We learn from the playwrights as they learn from us!"

The rules for the festival competition are as follows: playwrights must be 19 years of age or younger on March 15, 2011; original plays and musicals can be any length, on any subject. Scripts must be legible; pages must be numbered and unbound; submissions must be postmarked or emailed by March 15, 2011. There is a limit of three (3) plays per playwright. All plays must include a cover sheet with the play's title, playwright's name, date of birth, school (if any), mailing address, contact phone number, e-mail address and the play's production history (if any). Visit www.YoungPlaywrights.com for further information.

Each playwright whose work is accepted will be assigned a mentor: professional writers who will help the youngsters hone their work for performance. Past mentors have included Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally, Tony Award-nominated composer Michael John LaChiusa, writer Jeff Greenstein (Will & Grace), Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening), television and film director Garry Marshall, among many others. The playwrights then experience the thrill of seeing their plays performed by industry professionals in staged workshop productions.

Past festivals have featured well known actors such as Jeremy Sisto, Chris Pine, Noah Wyle, Molly Shannon, Tiffani Thiessen, Michael Welch (The Twilight Saga), Heather Morris (Glee) Nicholas Brendon and Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Tom Lenk, Josh Radnor and Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother), Sherri Shepherd (The View), Kelly Lynch, Debra Messing, Mark Valley and Constance Zimmer (Boston Legal), Kathryn Joosten (Desperate Housewives), Tony Award-winning actress Daisy Eagan, Emmy Award-winner Edward Asner, and many others.

In past years, some winning plays have gone on to have a life on The Blank's mainstage for full-scale production. Should this happen, the playwright is treated as a full professional, from signing an option agreement to being paid royalties for his/her play. The Why, a play by 19-year-old Victor Kaufold, received a Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award nomination for ‘Best Writing - World Premiere' as a result of The Blank's production. Kaufold is the youngest nominee in his category in 21 years of Ovation Award history.

For more information, visit the festival's web site at www.YoungPlaywrights.com or The Blank Theatre Company's website at www.TheBlank.com.

 

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