23rd Annual Chicago Young Playwrights Festival

Overview

January 12th-February 1st

An annual Chicago tradition and the oldest of its kind in the country, The Chicago Young Playwrights Festival receives 600+ submitted plays, each year, by teenagers throughout the city. Three to four winning teen playwrights are selected and their works are performed at Pegasus. YPF showcases the next generation of playwrights, allowing audiences a glimpse into the minds of today's youth.

Artists

Alex Levy (Director/Artistic Director) has been with Pegasus for over nine years. In that time he has directed several productions including Black Caesar, Still Life, The Upper Room (winner of the Joseph Jefferson Citation for “Best New Work”), Broadway Bound (Jeff nominated for four citations including “Best Production” and winner of the After Dark Award for “Best Ensemble”), The One-Eyed Man is King, Kid Kuisine, An Evening with the Living Dead, Waking Up, Portrait of an Exile, Insert Title Here and Free Will. He has also directed several of the Young Playwrights Festival touring productions. Since joining Pegasus, the theatre has won ten Joseph Jefferson Citations, seven After Dark Awards, and Pegasus became the first arts organization to win The Chicago Community Trust’s “James Brown IV” award (which included a $50,000 grant) and the City of Chicago’s “Human Relations Award.” Alex has led Pegasus on international tours in 20 and 2002 through the Middle East sponsored by The United States State Department. He was chosen to serve on the Theatre Communications Group’s Literary Manager’s advisory panel in New York and to serve as entertainment coordinator by the alderman for the “Uptown Unity Festival.” He has also worked with Smoke and Mirrors, Chicago Dramatists, Theatre Building Chicago, Oakton College, Loyola University, The Studio Theatre in Washington D.C. and Geva Theatre in Rochester, N.Y.