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Stephen Sondheim’s Young Playwrights Inc. Introduces America’s Most Talented Young Playwrights of 2007 YPI Hosts Nine Winners of the National Playwriting Competition for the 2007 Writers Conference, Culminating in Staged Reading Series of the Winning Plays New York, July, 2007 -- Young Playwrights Inc. (YPI), 25-year old brainchild of Stephen Sondheim and producer of the acclaimed Young Playwrights Festival, is pleased to announce the winners of the 2007 Young Playwrights Festival National Playwriting Competition. The winning plays were selected from the works of nearly 700 young playwrights from across the country vying for honors. The finalists’ plays were read and evaluated by a distinguished committee, including YPI’s Artistic Director and Selection Committee Chair, Sheri M. Goldhirsch, Jon Robin Baitz, Madeleine George, Morgan Jenness, Robert Kerr, Jeffrey M. Jones and Jonathan Marc Sherman, which identified nine extraordinary writers for national recognition. The writers arrived in New York City on July 19, 2007 for the Writers Conference, nine days of intensive playwright development. This remarkable introduction to the professional theater is more than a prize. Past winners have found the all-expenses-paid immersion into the profession of playwriting to be inspirational and life-altering. In addition to meeting and working with their peers, the winners participated in daily workshops and seminars with artists such as Thomas Bradshaw, Quiara Alegria Hudes, as well as YPI Literary Manager Lucas Hnath. The Writers Conference culminated in a Readings Series, presented on July 24, 25, and 26, 2007 at Classic Stage Company, including the following plays:
IN PLAIN VIEW
SAM
THE MAN WIFE AND HER FISHERMAN by Kate Herzlin, 14*, Rockville Center NY Directed by Alexis Poledouris
THE SWEET AGONY OF THE FROZEN SUMMER by Eric Kalman Levitz, 18*, Glastonbury CT Directed by Mark Armstrong
MECHANT ENFANT by Samuel Mayer, 15*, Houston TX Directed by Linsay Firman
THE WRITER by Graham Parkes, 15*, Santa Monica CA Directed by Brett W. Reynolds
THE WAR ON SAFETY by Max Posner, 18*, Denver CO Directed by Birgitta Victorson
THE NEVERENDING INTERDIMENSIONAL FINDINGS OF GILBERT, DUNGEON MASTER by Liam Sullivan, 13*, Brooklyn NY Directed by Shira Milikowsky
QUARTERS by Alexandria Symonds, 17*, Schwenksville, PA Directed by Drew Barr
Deferred until 2008: SILENT HARMONIES by Michael Trottier, 16*, Goffstown NH
(* age as of 1/01/07 deadline)
From the staged readings—each one brought to life by professional directors, actors, dramaturgs, and stage managers—YPI will choose the plays to be produced in the next Young Playwrights Festival. Winners are also awarded a complimentary membership to the Dramatists Guild Inc., America’s professional association for dramatists, composers, and lyricists. With their winning plays and subsequent works produced at nearly every major theater institution in the nation, YPI winners have changed the landscape of the American theater. Past participants include Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me, This is Our Youth, Lobby Hero), Rebecca Gilman (Glory of Living, Spinning into Butter, Boy Gets Girl), Keith Glover (Thunder Knocking At the Door), and Jonathan Marc Sherman (Women And Wallace, Sophistry), among others. To obtain more information about the Writers Conference, to set up an interview with one of the winning playwrights, or to request a photo, call Julie Rosier at (212) 594-5440, email [email protected], or visit www.youngplaywrights.org. |
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