Now celebrating its 30th anniversary year, The Blank Theatre's Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival (YPF) has chosen 13 plays by playwrights aged 15-19 from eight different states.
This year's winning plays are: Droplets, Pellets Bullets by Isabel Tongson, age 17, Winter Park, FL; The Legend of Caeneus by Zander Pryor, age 19, Bronxville, NY; bLack is a rIver by kHalib kEnnedy, age 18, Lake Waccamaw, NC; Gray Area by Simone Chaney, age 17, Interlochen, MI; Last Will and Testament and Other Wild Frog Facts by Alethea Shirilan-Howlett, age 19, Jamesville, NY; Dollface by Jeremino Sutton, age 17, San Antonio, TX; So-fish-ticated by Ava Ditto, age 17, San Antonio, TX; Under My Skin by Disha Cattamanchi, age 19, Kirkland, WA; Here's to All the Broken Girls by
Elizabeth Shannon, age 18, New York, NY; Lemon by Cady Walls, age 15, Snellville, GA; Stand. Up. Hit! by Win Thomas, age 18, Buffalo Grove, IL; I'll Love You Forever by Spencer Opal-Levine, age 19, Sarasota, FL; and Venus, and What Else is Nocturnal by Dylan Malloy, age 18, Aliso Viejo, CA.
The plays are divided up into weekly offerings of three plays and, for only the second time, an additional fifth week offering - a feature called YPF Plus (YPF+). The play Venus, and What Else is Nocturnal is nearly ready for professional production and will bridge The Blank's YPF and Living Room Series programs.
As with the 2020 and 2021 festivals, the plays will be produced under SAG/AFTRA's Short Project Agreement. All work will be performed and recorded remotely, with all cast and crew working safely from home. In July and August (exact dates TBA) the plays will be presented via streaming. Producing the festival in this way is made possible by the technology available through Zoom, OBS Studio, VB Audio, and more. These online platforms and downloadable software packages have made theatre from home viable, and The Blank has harnessed these services successfully for many streaming shows that have been met with critical acclaim and received thousands of views.
This year's YPF selection committee included (in alphabetical order) Paolo Andrés, Beth Bigler, Karlie Blair,
David Castillo,
Melissa Coleman-Reed,
Major Curda,
Aliza Goldstein,
Daniel Henning, John Hindman,
Cassandra Hsiao,
Bjorn Johnson, Michelle Lander, Annie McGrath, Jonathan Messer, Akela Munsey,
Bree Pavey,
Hannah Prichard,
Christopher James Raymond,
Irene Roseen, and
Michael Shepperd.
Mentors, directors, and casting will be announced later.
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