Lucy Alibar, Jesse Cameron Alick, Robert Askins and Steven Levenson join the Youngblood collective that provides guidance, support and exposure for the works of up-and-coming professional playwrights.

Youngblood artistic directors Graeme Gillis and RJ Tolan selected the four new additions from over 100 artists who applied for the program. "We want the Youngblood writers to have a diverse collection of backgrounds, different ways of seeing the world," Gillis stated. "Each of the new members bring that to the table."

Youngblood provides weekly meetings allowing members to present full-length works in progress, as well as creative retreats to the Lexington Center for the Arts, new works festivals, and a fully-supported main stage production of the group's most production-ready work.

The monthly Youngblood Sunday Brunch series is another method of presenting the developing works of playwrights to the general public. Recent Younblood Sunday Brunch events have included holiday-themed works, as well as readings of new musicals in development from members of the group.

The works of Youngblood members have gone on to productions at the Royal Court Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Mark Taper Forum, the New York International Fringe Festival, the Vineyard Theater, the Atlantic Theater Company and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and have been optioned by film and television companies, including the recent release of Youngblood alumna Amy Fox's "Heights" as a feature film from Merchant-Ivory. For more information visit www.youngbloodnyc.org.