Ensemble Studio Theatre Announces 2021-2022 EST/Youngblood New Members

Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) (William Carden, Artistic Director), along with EST's Youngblood (Graeme Gillis and RJ Tolan, Co-Artistic Directors) are proud to announce new EST/Youngblood members for the 2021-2022 season: Brysen Boyd, Edison Ventura Mata Diaz, Miz Hashimoto, Justice Hehir, Sam Mueller, Phanésia Pharel, Nia Akilah Robinson and Celeste Yim.

EST celebrates the 2021/22 season's new members of Youngblood, the Obie Award-winning collective of emerging professional playwrights. Now in its 28th year, Youngblood serves as a creative home for the next generation of theatre artists. Youngblood provides artistic guidance, peer support, regular feedback and a fertile production environment, which allows member playwrights to hone their skills and explore their craft. The group also provides exposure to the public and the press, professional outreach to the industry, and opportunities for production and publication.

The new writers join returning Youngblood members Brittany K. Allen, Harron Atkins, Jake Brasch, Jeesun Choi, AJ Clauss, Erika Dickerson-Despenza, Julia Doolittle, Michael Feldman, Jahna Ferron-Smith, Gracie Gardner, Ava Geyer, Dan Giles, Dylan Guerra, Lily Houghton, Anchuli Felicia King, Nadja Leonhard-Hooper, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Megan Chan Meinero, Ife Olujobi, Mona Pirnot, Phaedra Michelle Scott, Julia Specht, Lizzie Stern and Sanaz Toossi.

This year's graduating playwrights are Will Arbery, Karina Billini, Milo Cramer, Sylvia Khoury, Yilong Liu, Andrew Massey and Mara Nelson-Greenberg. While they will no longer be meeting regularly with Youngblood, EST will be inviting them back to write for one last Brunch, EST's monthly series with new plays by the writers of Youngblood, once it is safe for the program to begin again.

Playwrights whose professional careers began in the Youngblood program have gone on to success at the highest levels of the industry. Youngblood playwrights have been honored with Pulitzer Prizes, Obie Awards, MacArthur Fellowships, Tony Award nominations, Outer Critics Circle Awards, Drama Desk Awards, and Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe Award nominations.

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