Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Now Accepting Applications For The 2023 Young Playwrights Festival

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center is now accepting applications for the 2023 Young Playwrights Festival scheduled for May 12-14 at its seaside campus in Waterford, CT. Submissions will be accepted until Wednesday, February 8, 2023, at 11:59pm PST.

The Young Playwrights Festival offers students a hands-on opportunity to learn about dramatic form and structure as they experience the signature O'Neill play development process firsthand. Five featured playwrights will be selected to work with a dedicated creative team to develop their 10- to 15-page short plays.

This development process will culminate in a public script-in-hand reading of their pieces. Additional applicants will be invited to attend the festival as Guest Playwrights and will participate in workshops and hear their scripts read aloud.

"The Young Playwrights Festival is looking for students unafraid to put pen to page, sharing the unique theatrical vision housed in their imaginations," said Director of Education Sophia Chapadjiev. Applying students must be United States residents between the ages of 12 and 18 and currently enrolled in middle or high school. "Too often, society doesn't always have full regard for what young people think," Chapadjiev said. "At the O'Neill, we not only care, but are committed to helping these young writers realize the worlds they envision so that it might inspire our own."

Applications can be submitted at bit.ly/ypf2023. There is no application fee for the Young Playwrights Festival and participation is free for all invited playwrights. More information about the Young Playwrights Festival and its application process is available at www.theoneill.org/ypf.

The Launchpad of the American Theater, the O'Neill is the country's preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for the American theater. Founded in 1964, and named in honor of Eugene O'Neill, four-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and America's only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the O'Neill has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and thousands more emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O'Neill have gone on to full production at theaters around the world.

O'Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute - which offers six credit-earning undergraduate training programs. In addition, the O'Neill owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. The O'Neill is the recipient of two Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts. www.theoneill.org.