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Youngblood is Ensemble Studio Theatre's collective
of emerging professional playwrights. Founded in 1993, Youngblood
serves as the creative home for the next generation of theatre artists.
Youngblood provides artistic guidance, peer support, regular feedback
and a fertile production environment which allows our member playwrights
to hone their skills and explore their craft. We also provide exposure
to the public and the press, professional outreach to the industry,
and opportunities for production and publication.
Each Youngblood season includes:
- Weekly meetings where members present
work in progress, receive feedback and peer support, and/or work
on group exercises
- Two writers' retreats to EST's Lexington
Center for the Arts in the Catskills
- Bloodwork, a reading series which features
a new full-length play from each member, developed over the course
of a season
- Workshop and developmental productions,
including:
- annual productions of Asking For Trouble,
Youngblood's "instant guerilla theatre challenge,"
where each member draws a cast, director and "inspiration"
from a hat and then has one week to write and rehearse an
original ten-minute play. Past inspirations have been post
card images, songs, and prop/costume pieces. The resulting
works are presented on EST's mainstage.
- performances of works-in-progress
during EST's OctoberFest, where current and incoming members
present readings, workshops or fully-staged works.
- A fully-supported EST mainstage production
of the group's most polished work. These productions usually consitute
the writer's professional debut, and attract such industry figures
as film producers, literary agents, and major media outlets including
the New York Times. These productions also serve as an invaluable
introduction to professional production, including collaboration
with the director and designers, as well as a full casting, marketing
and publicity staff.
Plays by Youngblood playwrights have been performed
at The Royal Court Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Actors Theatre
of Louisville, the Mark Taper Forum, the New York International
Fringe Festival, the Vineyard Theater, the Atlantic Theater Company
and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and have been optioned by film
and television companies, including the recent release of Amy Fox's
Heights as a feature film from Merchant-Ivory.
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