Cassandra Hsiao News

Now celebrating its 31st anniversary year, The Blank Theatre's Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival (YPF) has chosen 12 plays by playwrights aged 15–19 from five different states.

The plays are divided up into weekly offerings of three plays and, for only the second time, an additional fifth week offering — a feature called YPF Plus (YPF+). The play Venus, and What Else is Nocturnal is nearly ready for professional production and will bridge The Blank’s YPF and Living Room Series programs.

Now in its 31st year, The Living Room Series (LRS) is a new play development program that embodies The Blank's commitment to developing new work by diverse voices from both established and emerging writers.

Ucross, a prestigious artist residency program and creative laboratory for the arts in Wyoming, and The Blank Theatre, a Los Angeles institution celebrating 30 years of imaginative theatre, today announced the semi-finalists for the newly created Ucross + The Blank Theatre – Future of Playwriting Prize, a one-of-a-kind award for young playwrights nationwide.

Dear Evan Hansen's Jared Kleinman is the mastermind partly responsible for the web of lies Evan Hansen weaves about being friends with his departed classmate, Connor Murphy. Equipped with digital savvy and verbal barbs, Jared provides the levity in the show, allowing audiences to view from a comedic standpoint the absurdity and heartbreak of Evan's situation. Actor Will Roland shares many things in common with his character-his humor, word play, quick wit-but one thing he thankfully no longer has in common is Jared's mean streak.

YOU ARE ENOUGH, a collection of three original one-acts, opens tonight. This will be the third time playwright Dylan Schifrin witnesses two of his works come to life. What makes it more phenomenal is that he is only a sophomore in college.

Life moves in circles. This sort of cliche isn't the message of Lobby Hero-rather, the play in itself is emblematic of the spirit of zeitgeist, the kind where unintended artistic choices turn out to be eerily prescient.

Ten plays from the second annual Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival will premiere at the Center for the Performing Arts of Bonita Springs Saturday and Sunday, April 28 and 29. The event in includes a Book Release Party to celebrate the publication of all the winners.

For the next month or so, I'll be memorizing lines and living from rehearsal to rehearsal. I'll be collaborating with actors older than me, actors with countless years of experience under their belt. I'll be digging deep into three original one-acts and studying videos of goth girls, Sheldon Cooper, and Zooey Deschanel to help me step into the shoes of my respective characters. And if I'm honest, I'm a little nervous.

Sometimes, in my English class, I feel an overwhelming urge to shout it out: "The curtains were blue!" The saying is common among students, an adage that rose from a hypothetical situation: the author writes "the curtains were blue" and the Literature teacher reads into it, saying "the curtains represent his immense depression and his lack of will to carry on," when really, the author just means that the curtains were blue.

College, at times, is exhausting. Every Sunday, the question haunts me: When am I going to find time to write?

Playwrights Project will produce its 33rd annual festival of Plays by Young Writers, sponsored by the Sheila and Jeffrey Lipinsky Family Fund, at The Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center at The Old Globe on January 18 - January 27, 2018. The festival will feature winning scripts from its California Young Playwrights Contest for ages 18 and under.

A table read is like picking at a scab. There is something painfully vulnerable about showing something integral to myself to a group of strangers, cutting away superfluous lines, and revealing the pulse of what's underneath. Yet through it all, there's a strange joy in it all--like C.S. Lewis said, 'it is such fun to see it come away.'

Now celebrating its 25th Anniversary, The Blank Theatre's Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival has chosen 12 plays by playwrights aged 17, 18, and 19 from six different states and the District of Columbia. These plays will be presented by professional actors and directors in this year's Festival at The Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood, June 1-25.

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature THE LAST FIVE YEARS in Omaha, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES in Tampa, and CAROUSEL in Los Angeles, just to name a few. Check out our top features below!

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature SPRING AWAKENING in Maine, A RAISIN IN THE SUN in Charlotte, and BUS STOP in Denver, just to name a few. Check out our top features below!

In January, I said goodbye to working on one of the plays I wrote in my junior year of high school, 'Supermarket of Lost,' which you can read about my experience here: http://www.broadwayworld.com/los-angeles/article/BWW-Blog-Cassandra-Hsiao-Opening-Nights-and-Goodbyes-Looking-Back-on-SUPERMARKET-OF-LOST-20170123

One year and four months. 

Playwrights Project will produce its 32nd annual festival of Plays by Young Writers, sponsored by the Sheila and Jeffrey Lipinsky Family Fund, at The Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center at The Old Globe on January 19 - January 29, 2017.

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in Washington, DC, Chicago, Orlando and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include THE SECRET GARDEN in DC, THE FUNDAMENTALS in Chicago, and PYGMALION in Orlando, just to name a few.