The Blank Theatre's Young Playwrights Festival 30th Anniversary Collection

Isabel Beatriz Tongson, Simone Chaney, Disha Catt, Zander Pryor, Jeremino Sutton, Wyn Alyse Thomas

The Blank Theatre's Young Playwrights Festival 30th Anniversary Collection

Isabel Beatriz Tongson, Simone Chaney, Disha Catt, Zander Pryor, Jeremino Sutton, Wyn Alyse Thomas

Overview

The Blank Theatre's Young Playwrights Festival (YPF), founded in 1992, continues the mission of The Blank by supporting work by young people aged 9-19. Every year, a Selection Committee made up of entertainment professionals meet to select the 12 best plays out of hundreds of submissions from young people across the United States. The winning young playwrights receive mentorship from working writers and have their plays fully staged by professional actors and directors over a monthlong festival in Los Angeles each July. Actors who have performed in YPF include Chris Pine, Scott Lowell, Constance Zimmer, David Castañeda, Kat McNamara, Dominic Burgess, Dylan O’Brien, Sarah Michell Gellar, Kirsten Vangsness, Vico Ortiz, and more.

This collection includes:

The Legend of Caeneus by Zander Pryor, age 18
stand. Up. HIT! by Wyn Alyse Thomas, age 18
Gray Area by Simone Chaney, age 17
Dollface by Jeremino Sutton, age 17
Droplets, Pellets, Bullets by Isabel Beatriz Tongson, age 18
Under My Skin by Disha Catt, age 16

Authors

Isabel Beatriz Tongson

Isabel Beatriz Tongson is a playwright and actor, attending Barnard College of Columbia University in the fall to study Theater and English. Combining her love of writing and performance, Isabel wrote her first play at age fourteen and has gone on to receive international rec ...

View full profile

Simone Chaney

Simone Chaney recently graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy, enrolled in the school’s creative writing program. Simone is from Marshfield, Wisconsin, where she lives with her parents, younger sister, and hairless cat. Her work has been published by institutions such as Gen ...

View full profile

Disha Catt

Disha Catt is a 16-year-old writer of South Indian descent who hails from Kirkland, Washington. Disha also writes for the Seattle Times through the TeenTix Press Corps, a teen arts journalism program sponsored by TeenTix (teentix.org), a youth empowerment and arts access nonp ...

View full profile

Zander Pryor

Zander Pryor is a rising sophomore at Sarah Lawrence College, and this is his third consecutive year as a winner of The Blank’s Young Playwrights Festival. Zander has also acted on professional stages across Dallas and Fort Worth. His other scripts have been produced in vario ...

View full profile

Jeremino Sutton

Jeremino Sutton is a senior in the Creative Writing department of North East School of the Arts. He is the Art Director for the department’s literary magazine, The Bunker Review. He has also been featured in the volumes of the release, including Lore, Jazz and Rogue. Outside ...

View full profile

Wyn Alyse Thomas

Wyn Alyse Thomas is a writer, actor, director and producer from Buffalo Grove, IL. In 2021 her play Write Their Wrongs was performed in over sixty locations around the country as one of the eight plays in #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence. Wyn’s play Scared (Winner of the IH ...

View full profile