For ten years, Los Angeles' Blank Theatre Company has held an annual National Young Playwrights Festival. So far, that's meant over one hundred produced plays from writers 19 and younger from 15 of the 50 states.

Through March 15, the company will be accepting submissions for the 10th Festival. Between eight and twelve plays are chosen each year.

Submission must be postmarked by March 1 and must include a cover sheet with playwright's name, date of birth, school (if any), home address, contact phone number, e-mail address and production history (if any). Manuscripts, which should be numbered by page and submitted unbound, will not be returned. There are no submission fees.

If a playwright's work is chosen, he or she will be teamed with a professional mentor before the play is fully staged. Past mentors have included Tony winner Terrence McNally, Gordon Hunt, Constance M. Burge ("Charmed"), Nora Dunn ("Saturday Night Live"), Broadway director Michael Mayer and film director Garry Marshall.

Send submissions to the Blank Theatre Company, Young Playwrights Festival, 1301 Lucile Ave., L.A., CA. 90026. The Young Playwrights Festival is on the web at http://www.youngplaywrights.com. The Blank Theatre Company is known for its recent productions of The Why, Starr Struck: A Musical Investigation and Hello Again as well as its artistic producer, TV's Noah Wylie. The Los Angeles-based company was founded in 1990.

— By Christine Ehren