38th Street, New York City. It happens every week. Some come by boat. Others by train. A few just hit the pavement. A gang of ambitious young writers (sixteen to nineteen years of age) all sharing one goal -- to change the future of the American Theater by earning their place in it. Are they talented? Yes. More importantly, they're motivated enough to meet weekly in an exploration of the craft of playwriting by attending YPI's Advanced Playwriting Workshop or Writers Group. 

The current APW is a revival of YPI's early '80's after-school program which introduced Keith Glover (Thunder Knocking At The Door), Floraine Kay (Uncle Tom's Cabin), Kenneth Lonergan (This is Our Youth, Analyze This!), and Charlie Schulman (The Ground Zero Club, The Kitchen) to the power of the theater. In the upstairs classroom of New Dramatists (use of which is donated by the same), participants study the basics of dramatic writing. YPI's managing director Brett W. Reynolds takes the young writers through YPI's Writing On Your Feet! Playwriting Curriculum and then off to the theater where they see theory put into practice. Noted dramatists Eve Ensler, David Henry Hwang, Nan Knighton, Kenneth Lonergan, Alfred Uhry, Paula Vogel, and Wendy Wasserstein have been on hand to answer questions and discuss craft as the young writers to stretch beyond the ordinary developing their artistic muscles.

This unique program, offered free of charge, allows an opportunity for the expansion and exercise of craft, exploration of established and innovative playwriting forms, collaboration and interaction with peer artists, and intensive study with master artists. The APW meets throughout the academic year for a three-hour weekly session. Playwrights begin work on a new play, which is developed and revised over the course of the workshop. During the second semester, playwrights collaborate with directors and dramaturgs on a staged reading of their new work. These performances feature professional actors and are attended by friends, family, and members of New York's professional theater community.

In addition to the weekly session, APW participants attend Broadway and Off-Broadway productions that are often followed by discussions with members of the cast and/or creative team. The 1999/2000 APW was supported enthusiastically by the New York theater community through the generous donation of tickets; as a result the group attended Amadeus, Annie Get Your Gun, Barefoot Boy With Shoes On, Beauty And The Beast, The Bomb-Itty Of Errors, Chicago, Copenhagen, De La Guarda, Dinner With Friends, Dirty Blonde, Elsa/Edgar, An Empty Plate In The Café Du Grand Boeuf, Epic Proportions, Footloose, Fuddy Meers, The Green Bird, Hedwig And The Angry Inch, The Laramie Project, Look Back In Anger, Marie Christine,` A Moon For The Misbegotten, The Music Man, The Price, Rent, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, Sexual Perversity In Chicago, Squonk, Uncle Vanya, The Vagina Monologues, Waiting In The Wings, Wake Up And Smell The Coffee, The Water Engine, The Waverly Gallery, The Wild Party, Wit, and Wrong Mountain.

The Writers Group is the next step for playwrights who have completed the Advanced Playwriting Workshop and wish to continue developing their work in a communal setting. Led by YPI Teaching Artist and noted children's author Alex Steele (Wishbone), the Group meets three times a month during the school year to read and critique current projects.

Admission to the Advanced Playwriting Workshop is highly competitive; writers interested in applying to the 2001-02 APW should contact YPI immediately -- application deadline has been extended until November 5!