September 12, 2000. The doors close as a latecomer scurries to his seat. The house lights dim, cell phones are shut off, streams of conversation fade to a trickle before being replaced by complete silence. All eyes focus intently ahead, as the lights go up on an event three long years in the making. The music starts to play, the actors take the stage, and the long-awaited Young Playwrights Festival 2000 is off and running.

Featuring plays by four gifted young writers, the Festival played to enthusiastic audiences from September 12^th - 30^th at the cozy Cherry Lane Alternative, made possible by Angelina Fiordellisi. The works ran the gamut of subject and tone, from the downright zany to the poignant. The evening commenced with Caroline Noble Whitbeck's Woof, a madcap romp about a dog-loving girl and her marshmallow fluff-loving mother, followed by Adam Feldman's A Mind of its Own, a lively fable of a young man's comical confrontation with his sexuality and his genitalia incarnate. Next on the bill was Sherry Ou-yang's delicate tale of a young girl's yearning to break free, Fish-Eye View. The evening was capped off by Gemma Cooper-Novack's poignant look at death and its emotional aftermath, I'm Coming In Soon. The creative team included such talents as directors Richard Caliban, Jeremy Dobrish, Beth F. Milles, and Lynn M. Thomson; designers Narelle Sissons (sets), Pat Dignan (lighting), Kitty Leech (costumes), and David A. Gilman (sound); dramaturgs for the evening were Madeleine George, Michael angel Johnson, Emily Morse, and Ben Pesner.

To herald in the season, YPI hosted an opening night gala at the theater. Present at this festive, food-filled bash were such luminaries as playwright and YPI board member David Henry Hwang (Golden Child, Aida), noted librettist and lyricist Nan Knighton (The Scarlet Pimpernel, Saturday Night Fever), and the distinguished playwright and president of YPI, Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Parade). 

The high spirits ushered in by this upbeat evening pervaded the Festival's run, as night after night audiences left the theater moved and full of praise. "We couldn't have been happier with the Festival," said YPI Artistic Director Sheri Goldhirsch. "So many people told me how impressed they were by the talent exhibited onstage, from our brilliant young playwrights to our dazzling company of directors, designers and actors."

Supported in part by a leadership grant from Universal Studios, Inc., this Festival was a milestone in YPI's 19-year history, as scores of people came together to reinvigorate YPI's mission to encourage young people's self-expression of through the art of playwriting. Boosted by the positive buzz, YPI has already received over 800 plays for the 2001 National Playwriting Competition.

But the kudos have been well-deserved by the hard-working YPI. "I'm still amazed and utterly flattered at the lengths YPI went to in order to carry out my vision," says Woof scribe Caroline Whitbeck, now a Harvard senior, "especially when the challenges included drilling oozing jars of Fluff!"