Emerging Artists Recognized: Ensemble Studio Theater Announces New Youngblood Members & YoungArts Celebrates 2026 winners
NEW YORK CITY: Ensemble Studio Theatre‘s Youngblood, an OBIE-winning collective of emerging professional playwrights, has announced new members for the 2025-26 season. now in its 32nd year, youngblood aims to provide a creative home for the next generation of theatre artists through artistic guidance, peer support, regular feedback, and a fertile development environment for member playwrights to explore their craft.
The new group includes Davis Alianiello, a playwright, director, dramaturg, and teacher, originally from Providence, Rhode Island; Messiah Cristine, a recent graduate of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale; Avery Deutsch, a playwright and actor from Katonah, New York; Xiaoyan Kang, a chinese immigrant playwright working in the United States; Carolyn Kettig, an actor, writer, and artist from New York who frequently enough generates work in community; Gloria Majule, a Tanzanian storyteller who writes for and about Africans and the African diaspora; Max Mooney, a queer writer, director, producer, theatre educator, and dramaturg based in Brooklyn; Jordan Ramirez Puckett, a Latine writer from the San francisco Bay Area; and Dublin- and New York-based writer Rosa Thomas.
MIAMI: YoungArts has announced its 2026 award winners, billed as awards for nation’s most accomplished young visual, literary, and performing artists. Bestowed annually since 1981, the YoungArts Award recognizes young talent across disciplines and aims to affirm their pursuit of a professional life in the arts. A complete list of the 2026 winners is available online.
Winners wiht distinction for musical theatre are Audrey Chang of Windermere High School (Windermere,Florida),Keilah Clarke of Professional Performing Arts High School (New York City),Chase Klein of Brentwood School (Los Angeles),Mehret Marsh of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and performing Arts High School (New York City), Jai’Den Pritchett of Sycamore High School (Montgomery, ohio), Wendell Remy of Indian River Charter High School (vero Beach, Florida), Jack Ryan of american Heritage Schools (Plantation, Florida), Cendall Williams of Harrison School for the Arts (Lakeland, Florida), Natalie Winstead of University of North Carolina School of the Arts (Winston-Salem, North Carolina), and Maddox Wood of Webb City High School (Webb City, Missouri).
Other musical theatre honorees include Winter Donnelly of LaGuardia (New york City), Mickey Galman of Lincoln park Performing Arts Charter School (Midland, Pennsylvania), Jordan Greenberg of LaGuardia (New York City), Zhymeire Holliday of Northwest School of the arts (Charlotte, North Carolina), Heather Koike of C.K. McClatchy High School (Sacramento, California), Meg Laskey of Interlochen Arts Academy (Interlochen, Michigan), McKayla Pesaturo of North Broward Preparatory School (Coconut Creek, Florida), Isaiah Phipps, an online/virtual student (McDonough, Georgia), and Ryan Robbins of Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda, Maryland).
Theatre (spoken) winners with distinction are Joshua Prabhakar of Valley Christian High School (San Jose, California), Elijah Primas of Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Houston), Giselle Register of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts (Jacksonville, Florida), Manav Tokala
## Playwright Malikah Stafford Awarded 2025 Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission for *Dead to Us*
Emerging playwright Malikah Stafford has received the prestigious 2025 Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission for her new work,*Dead to Us*. The commission, sponsored by the Lee Strasberg Creative Center, is designed to foster the development of original plays specifically for college-age actors each fall.
The program builds upon the legacy of the influential Group theatre, aiming to create a space for ensemble play creation in New York City and nurture the next generation of collaborative artists.*Dead to Us* is described as a darkly comic, supernatural ensemble dramedy that explores themes of cruelty, jealousy, and complicity within a fractured friend group following the death of one of their members.
The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute will present Stafford’s play on December 11-13 at the Irma Sandrey Theatre.Stephanie Rolland will direct the production, featuring an ensemble cast comprised of students from NYU Tisch Drama.
this commission underscores the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute’s commitment to supporting emerging playwrights and providing opportunities for young actors to collaborate on innovative theatrical work.
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