Blank Theatre Company's Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival Seeks Submissions

Hollywood's Blank Theatre Company's Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival is now seeking submissions from playwrights 19 years of age and younger through March 15, 2010. Winning plays will be presented in four performances by professional actors and directors from June 3-27, 2010 at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood, CA.

Now in its eighteenth year, The Blank Theatre Company's Young Playwrights Festival is a nationwide competition that produces the work of eight to twelve teenage playwrights each year. The Festival has produced 196 plays by playwrights 19 and younger since 1993 from more than 25 states.

"Every year I am amazed at the depths these teenagers go to in their writing. They are brave, bold and uninhibited," says Noah Wyle (from TV's ER), Artistic Producer at The Blank. "The winners are thrilled to see their plays presented by professionals, but these professionals are often given a great gift in return: a renewed sense of artistic purpose. We learn from the playwrights as they learn from us!"

The rules for the Festival competition are simple: Playwrights must be 19 years of age or younger on March 15, 2010; original plays and musicals can be of any length on any subject matter, but must be legible; pages must be numbered and submitted unbound; submissions must be postmarked or emailed by March 15, 2010; limit of three (3) plays per playwright. All plays must include a cover sheet with the play's title, playwrights name, date of birth, school (if any), mailing address, contact phone number, e-mail address and play's production history (if any). That's it. No more rules. Check out www.YoungPlaywrights.com for further information on how to submit by mail or electronically.

Each winning playwright will be assigned a mentor: professional writers who will help winning playwrights hone their work for performance. Past mentors have included Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally, Michael John LaChiusa (Tony-nominated composer), Terry Rossio (writer of "Shrek" and "Pirates of the Caribbean"), Jeff Greenstein ("Will & Grace"), Liz Craft & Sarah Fain ("Dollhouse"), Michael Mayer (Tony-winning director-"Spring Awakening"), Garry Marshall (director, "The Princess Diaries II") and many others. The playwrights then experience the thrill of seeing their plays performed by industry professionals in fully staged workshop productions.

Past festivals have featured well-known actors such as Chris Pine ("Star Trek"), Jeremy Sisto ("Law & Order"), Noah Wyle (ER), Molly Shannon, Tiffani Thiessen, Michael Welch ("The Twilight Saga"), Nicholas Brendon and Sarah Michelle Gellar ("Buffy The Vampire Slayer"), Eliza Dushku ("Dollhouse") Josh Radnor and Alyson Hannigan ("How I Met Your Mother"), Sherri Shepherd ("The View"), Arielle Kebbel ("The Uninvited"), Kelly Lynch ("Charlie's Angels), Debra Messing ("Will & Grace"), Mark Valley ("Human Target"), Constance Zimmer ("Entourage"), Kathryn Joosten ("Desperate Housewives"), Allison Mack ("Smallville"), Tony-winner Daisy Eagan, Emmy-winner Edward Asner, and many others.

The production is made possible in part by grants from The James Irvine Foundation, The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Plum Foundation, The Rosenthal Charitable Trust, Los Angeles County Arts Commission and City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

The Blank Theatre Company's work has been featured on MSNBC, CNN SHOWBIZ TODAY, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, BBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, and the FINANCIAL TIMES of London.

For more information, check out the festival's web site at YoungPlaywrights.com or TheBlank.com.

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