The Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) is a non-profit membership-based developmental theatre located in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. It has a dual mission of nurturing individual theatre artists and developing new American plays.

Overview

The Ensemble Studio Theatre — commonly known as “EST”— was founded in 1968 by Curt Dempster. With 589 ensemble artists concentrated mainly in New York City, EST has been under the artistic direction of William Carden since 2007. EST hosts three groups of playwrights: Youngblood, EST's OBIE-winning collective of emerging professional playwrights under the age of 30; the EST Playwrights Unit, a diverse group of playwrights that comprises both EST members and non-members; and Going to the River, a group of women playwrights of color with distinct and powerful voices. EST also cultivates the development of plays during a three-week annual tenure as the resident theater company of the Southampton Writers Conference, in partnership with the SUNY Stony Brook's MFA summer playwriting program. EST has presented its new, short play festival, the Marathon of One-Act Plays, annually for over thirty years, and it is a public forum for new works by both well-established and up-and-coming writers. The Marathon has been credited for reviving the one-act play form, inspiring many similar festivals across the country. Past playwrights include Horton Foote, Tina Howe, David Mamet,

Shirley Lauro Shirley Shapiro Mezvinsky Lauro (née Shapiro) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. Her plays include ''A Piece of my Heart'', ''Open Admissions'', ''The Radiant'', ''All Through the Night'' and others. Her novel is ''The Edge' ...

, Jaquelyn Reingold, and José Rivera. Since 1968, EST has produced over 6,000 new works. It produces approximately 150 projects each year, ranging from fully produced mainstage productions to a variety of in-progress workshops and readings.

Membership

EST has a membership of over 600 theatre artists, including playwrights, directors, actors, designers and managers.

Notable EST Member Artists

David Auburn David Auburn (born 30 November 1969) is an American playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. He is best known for his 2000 play '' Proof'', which won the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play and Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He also wrote the screen ...

* Annie Baker * Bob Balaban * Lewis Black * Geneva Carr * Catherine Curtin * Dane DeHaan * Danny DeVito * Lucy DeVito * Christopher Durang * John Guare * William Jackson Harper * Lucas Hnath * Tina Howe * William H. Macy * David Mamet * Gates McFadden * Qui Nguyen *

Sarah Jessica Parker Sarah Jessica Parker (born March 25, 1965) is an American actress and television producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 1 ...

Austin Pendleton Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. He is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen who has appeared in films including ''Catch-22'' (1970); '' W ...

* José Rivera * John Patrick Shanley * Grant Shaud * Shel Silverstein * Lois Smith * Jon Voight * Wendy Wasserstein * Claudia Weill *

Ming Na Wen Ming-Na Wen (; born November 20, 1963) is an American actress and model. She voiced Mulan in the animated film ''Mulan'' and its sequel, portrayed Melinda May / The Cavalry in ''Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' (2013–2020), and Fennec Shan ...

Leah Nanako Winkler Leah Nanako Winkler is a Japanese-born American playwright currently living in New York City. Her play ''God Said This'' won the 2018 Yale Drama Series Prize. Her play, Two Mile Hollow, recently won the Francesca Primus Prize. She is a recipien ...

* Jerry Zaks * Anna Ziegler * Nitya Vidyasagar

EST Youngblood

Youngblood is Ensemble Studio Theatre's collective of emerging professional playwrights under the age of 30. Founded in 1993. Plays by current and former Youngblood playwrights have been performed at The Royal Court Theatre, Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Mark Taper Forum, the Vineyard Theater, the Atlantic Theater Company and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, including award winners such as Annie Baker's The Aliens and Amy Herzog's 4000 Miles, and have been adapted by film and television companies, including alumni Lucy Alibar's Juicy and Delicious which was adapted into the film Beasts of The Southern Wild. Youngblood is currently run by Co-Artistic Directors Graeme Gillis and RJ Tolan.

Notable Youngblood Alumni

Robert Askins Robert Elwood Askins (January 7, 1919 – April 30, 2010) was an American murderer, sex offender, and suspected serial killer from Washington, D.C. who was convicted of fatally poisoning Ruth McDonald in 1938 and was a prime suspect in two other ...

* Annie Baker * Amy Herzog *

Mike Lew Michael (Mike) Lew is a Chinese-American playwright most renown for his works ''Teenage Dick,'' and '' Tiger Style!.'' He acquired his B.A. at Yale University in 2003, double majoring in Theatre (directing) and English (writing), then proceeded to ...

* Qui Nguyen * Christopher Shinn *

Lucy Thurber Lucy Thurber is an American playwright based in New York City. She is the recipient of the first Gary Bonasorte Memorial Prize for Playwriting, a Lilly Award and a 2014 OBIE Award for ''The Hill Town Plays''. Biography She was born in ...

References

{{Coord, 40, 46, 1.03, N, 73, 59, 34.77, W, region:US-NY, display=title Theatres in Manhattan Off-Off-Broadway Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan ja:ヴィニヤード・シアター