RJ Tolan*, Program Director
Youngblood is Ensemble Studio Theatre’s OBIE-winning collective of emerging early-career playwrights. Founded in 1993, Youngblood serves as a creative home for the next generation of theater 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.
Plays by current and former Youngblood member playwrights have been performed on Broadway, in London's West End (Robert Askins' TONY-nominated Hand to God, which premiered at EST/Youngblood), at The Royal Court Theatre, Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, the Public Theatre, Vineyard Theater, Atlantic Theater Company and many others. Since 2014, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama has gone to an alum of Youngblood 3 times (Annie Baker, Martyna Majok and Sanaz Toossi) and five alumni have been nominees (Lloyd Suh, Sylvia Khoury, Will Arbery, Clare Barron and Amy Herzog). Martyna' Majok's Pulitzer-winning Cost of Living and Will Arbery's nominated Heroes Of The Fourth Turning both started as short plays in Youngblood's famed Sunday Brunch series.