Graeme Gillis News

First Light Festival 2009 is a presentation of new works commissioned by the EST/Sloan Project, an initiative designed to stimulate artists to create credible and compelling work exploring the worlds of science and technology and to challenge the existing stereotypes of scientists and engineers in the popular imagination. Now in its eleventh season, The Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project (Graeme Gillis, Program Director) program has received proposals now numbering in the hundreds, and EST/Sloan has commissioned some two hundred projects for development with grants ranging from $500 to $10,000. Each season the EST/Sloan Project commissions and develops new works, and presents the results, at various stages from first readings to fully mounted productions, in the FIRST LIGHT Festival.

On Tuesday November 11th at 5:00 PM, The Drama Book Shop located on 250 W. 40th Street will be celebrating the release of the latest volume of the critically-acclaimed series Best American Short Plays and its new editor, Barbara Parisi.

Youngblood, Ensemble Studio Theatre's collective of emerging playwrights under 30 (RJ Tolan/Graeme Gillis, Artistic Directors), will celebrate its fifteenth season this year with Asking For Trouble, the biggest play festival in their history. Youngblood has invited their alumni - 41 playwrights, 35 directors and 120 actors - to participate in the mammoth 5-day event, including many EST members alongside emerging talents like Johnny Pruitt ('Chappelle's Show'), Jessica Andres ('Gossip Girl'), Matt Lauria and Marguerite Stimpson (both of 'Lipstick Jungle').

Youngblood, Ensemble Studio Theatre's collective of emerging playwrights under 30 (RJ Tolan/Graeme Gillis, Artistic Directors), will celebrate its fifteenth season this year with Asking For Trouble, the biggest play festival in their history. Youngblood has invited their alumni - 41 playwrights, 35 directors and 120 actors - to participate in the mammoth 5-day event, including many EST members alongside emerging talents like Johnny Pruitt ('Chappelle's Show'), Jessica Andres ('Gossip Girl'), Matt Lauria and Marguerite Stimpson (both of 'Lipstick Jungle').

The New School for Drama was well represented in the 33rd Annual Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival, which featured a selection of 40 plays this past month at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in New York City.

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE (William Carden, Artistic Director, Paul Alexander Slee, Executive Director) and THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION (Doron Weber, Program Director) proudly announce the 10th annual FIRST LIGHT Festival, which will run now through May 3rd at E.S.T. (549 West 52nd Street).

Second Generation, the nation's preeminent Asian American theater company devoted to developing the next generation of APA theater artists, presents SIX, a series of world premiere one-act plays by Asian American playwrights.

Playwrights Lucy Alibar, Jesse Cameron Alick, Robert Askins and Steven Levenson are the newest members of Youngblood, Ensemble Studio Theatre's collective of emerging professional playwrights.

Off-Broadway's Award-winning Ma-Yi Theater Company begins its 19th Season with the world premiere of a new play by Lloyd Suh The Children of Vonderly, directed by Ralph B. Peña. Off-Broadway Previews begin Saturday, September 22 at East 13th Street Theatre.

Off-Broadway's Award-winning Ma-Yi Theater Company opens its 19th season with the world premiere of Lloyd Suh's new play, The Children of Vonderly, for a limited Off-Broadway engagement with previews beginning September 22, prior to an official press opening October 4 at The East 13th Street Theatre

Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundaton have announced the 9th annual First Light Festival, which will run from March 28th through April 27th at E.S.T.

ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATRE and THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION proudly announce the 9th annual FIRST LIGHT Festival, which will run from March 28th through April 27th at E.S.T. (549 West 52nd Street) will be highlighted by the New York premiere of David Zellnik's new play Serendib, directed by Carlos Armesto.

Ensemble Studio Theatre will present Project 35, a festival celebrating the Ensemble Studio Theatre's 35th Anniversary season