Ensemble Studio Theatre

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

The Ensemble Studio Theatre — commonly known as “EST”— was founded in 1968 by Curt Dempster on the belief that "extraordinary support yields extraordinary work". EST are an ever expanding group of artists committed to the discovery and nurturing of new voices and the continued support and growth of artists throughout their creative lives. The ensemble works together repeatedly over time to develop and produce new plays. With 589 ensemble artists concentrated mainly in New York City, EST has been under the artistic direction of William Carden since 2007.

EST fosters the creation of new works in part by hosting three groups of playwrights: Youngblood, EST’s 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 prestigious Southampton Writers Conference, in partnership with the SUNY Stony Brook’s MFA summer playwriting program.

The company received two 2013 Drama Desk Award nominations for Finks by Joe Gilford and one 2014 Drama Desk nomination for Bobby Moreno in Year Of The Rooster by Eric Dufault, who won the 2014 NY Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for a new playwright debut. Hand To God, originating at EST, was nominated for five Tony Awards for its Broadway run, and in 2015 EST received a special Drama Desk Award for its “unwavering commitment to producing new works” at the end of May.

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, Jaquelyn Reingold, and José Rivera.

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