May, 2006 - TRUE LIFE STORY OF [YOUR NAME HERE]

For the Brick Theater's summer $ELLOUT FESTIVAL, Youngblood has sold their very artist souls to the highest bidder. Tom Ritchford won an eBay auction to have his life story adapted into a one-hour play by the Youngblood playwrights. Below are pictures from our first read-through of the resulting material.

November, 2005 - The Youngblood Bowl-a-Thon!

Youngblood held its second, quasi-bi-annual fundraiser Bowl-a-Thon on November 19 at scenic Leisure Time Lanes at the Port Authority. Fun was had, beer was consumed, balls were rolled, and money was raised. Thanks to everyone who sponsored the bowlers!

July, 2005 - Retreat to Lexington Center with Lincoln Center Directors

The theme for this summer's Lincoln Center Directors Lab was working with playwrights on new material. Youngblood hosted ten of the Lab directors at EST's Lexington Center for the Arts for a weekend retreat, complete with roundtable discussions, exercises, readings of new work, and lots of campfire time.

April, 2005 - His Occupation at Purdue University

2005 saw the first fruits of the Youngblood University Outreach program, as Purdue University presented the world premiere of Ross Maxwell's His Occupation. Youngblood Artistic Director R.J. Tolan and Russ Jones, Chair of Purdue's Theatre Department, met in mid-2004 to talk about how to give Purdue's students access to exciting young playwriting talent, to give them the experience of working on brand new pieces. Less than a year later, Tolan and Maxwell went to Purdue to meet the students and faculty, and to see the excellent production that resulted.

March, 2005 - Asking For Trouble '05

For the annual "Asking For Trouble," each Youngblood playwright draws a cast and director from a hat (actually, in this case, from a beer pitcher), plus an "inspiration" piece - this year, a postcard. They then have one week to write a ten-minute play, and the cast and director have one week to rehearse it. This year, the results were presented as the final weekend of Youngblood's UNFILTERED Festival of New Works.

March, 2005 - UNFILTERED Festival of New Works

Youngblood's mainstage production for 2005 was the UNFILTERED Festival of New Works. Each week featured a showcase workshop of a new full-length: Ross Maxwell's Frank Dwyer, Sadly Missed, directed by Josh Hecht; Zakkiyah Alexander's Elected, directed by R.J. Tolan; and Edith L. Freni's The Workaround, directed by Brian Roff. The workshops were rehearsed for one week and presented on-book, with staging and tech. Below: pictures from The Workaround.