The first was Pegasus' highly successful Young Playwrights Festival (YPF), which began in 1984.

LEAD: The plays presented in the annual Young Playwrights Festival have often dealt with young people going through rites of passage.

Davis produced weekly play readings at the Blank Theatre for almost 6 years, and has been a guest director at that company's Young Playwrights Festival since 2002.

LEAD: The four writers in this season's Young Playwrights Festival are among the most talented to emerge in the eight years of the annual series.

More than 900 teen-agers entered scripts for this year's Young Playwrights Festival in New York City.

The fourth year has also undergone a radical transformation thanks to the Playwrights Festival, a performance series at the top of the year comprising plays by student playwrights and recent graduates.

His second, "I'm Not Stupid," is one of four winners in the 10th annual Young Playwrights Festival, which received 725 entries from writers under 19 nationwide.

Miller by Wasserstein by Sondheim The people who run the 14-year-old Young Playwrights Festival hope the theater world cares about their dire financial straits.

As producing director, then artistic director, she oversaw the group's annual Young Playwrights Festival.

As a critic, one approaches the annual Young Playwrights Festival with the knives tucked safely away in a drawer.