38th Young Playwrights Festival

The 38th Young Playwrights Festival highlights three world premiere plays that highlight the world of relationships and connections from past love to family to superheroes. This year’s winning plays are:

Love & Gyros by Lily Zhang | Directed by Reshmi Hazra Rustebakke
After decades apart, James and Cecelia, two former high school sweethearts, bump into each other at a restaurant on New Year’s Eve on a faraway island in Greece. Throughout the evening, fragments of the past are revealed and revisited in this recollection of youth, time and memory.

Family Fishing Trip by Lydia Vodopic | Directed by Ruben Carrazana
Sal takes his kids Jenny and Mike on a family fishing trip that takes a turn for the worse. When secret schemes are uncovered and possible criminal activity is involved, this family has to put their differences aside and work together to make it back home.

Superheroes Anonymous by Carolina Boss | Directed by Ilesa Duncan
A group of undercover superheroes gather at a special support group for the opportunity to discuss their problems. But the meeting organizer turns out to be a wealthy teenage tech genius, who has ulterior motives for bringing the group together.

The cast of the 38th Annual Young Playwrights Festival includes Lexi Alioto,  Shenise Brown, Collin Callahan, Jacob Coggshall, Ben Izlar Jr, Noelle Oh and Diego Rivera-Rodriguez with understudies Emma Fulmer, Lawrence Green, Jake Jones and Benjamin Jouras. The production team for the 38^th Annual Young Playwrights Festival includes: Ruben Carrazana (director, Family Fishing Trip); IIesa Duncan (director, Superheroes Anonymous); Reshmi Hazra Rustebakke (director, Love & Gyros); Harrison Ornelas (scenic designer); Josh Wroblewski (lighting designer); Marquecia Jordan (costume designer); Cecelia Chan (props designer); Alex Albrecht (sound designer); Adi Davis (production manager) and Jessica Minogue (stage manager).

Pegasus Theatre Chicago’s 38^th Annual Young Playwrights Festival runs January 2 – 26, 2025 at Chicago Dramatists, 798 N. Aberdeen. Tickets are available Thursday, Jan. 2 – Saturday, Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. with the Opening Ceremony, Sunday, Jan. 5 at 2:30 p.m. The performance then continues Fridays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.  Tickets are $15 – $30.