The nine young playwrights chosen by the annual Young Playwrights National Playwriting Competition arrive in New York City Oct. 30 for a week long conference during which their plays will be read and various theatre professionals will serve as mentors to the teenage writers.

This year's winners with their ages and play titles are:

Nell Chamberlin, 17, Five Disc Changer
Katy Domogla, 18, The Hour E
Veronica Rahal Hadda, 17, Sunsets and Moon-lit Pools
Karin Evelyn Haug, 17, How to be a Successful Teenager
Jeb. G. Havens, 17, Conference Time
Catherine Keyser, 18, Welcome Home, Virginia Woolf
Kendra L. Levin, 16, Requiem for a Priest
Kyle McCarthy, 16, Tracks
Jason Newbern, 18, It's Hard Work Being a Playa

While in New York, the winners will catch performances of Copenhagen, Rent, The Seussical, Fully Committed, Les Mizrahi and The Beginning of August with after play discussions with Roger Bart, Neil Pepe and Tom Donaghy. Workshops will be hosted by lyricists Lynn Aherns and Nan Knighton and there will be the annual Chinese dinner at the home of Pulitzer, Oscar and Tony Award winner Alfred Uhry.

The week concludes in staged readings of the plays Nov. 2 and 3 at the Miranda Theater and Nov. 4 at New Dramatists. From these readings, brought to life by professional directors, actors and stage managers, the annual Young Playwrights Festival plays will be chosen for full production Off-Broadway. Past Young Playwrights winners have included Rebecca Gilman (Spinning Into Butter), Keith Glover (Thunder Knocking at the Door), Kenneth Lonergan (This is Our Youth), Kate Moira Ryan (The Autobiography of Aiken Fiction) and Jonathan Marc Sherman (Sophistry).

For more information on the Young Playwrights, call (212) 307-11140 or visit them on the web at http://www.youngplaywrights.org.

-- By Christine Ehren