New School for Drama student Paul David Young, MFA Playwriting '09, has been selected as a runner-up for the Kendeda Playwriting Fellowship at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. In addition to receiving a cash prize, the Alliance will mount a reading of his winning play No One But You at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, with another reading scheduled in New York City. In 2007, alum Bekah Brunstetter (MFA Playwriting ’07) was a finalist for her play Green.
 
"I'm very proud to have been selected," says Young. "The best part of the prize is to have the support of the Alliance [Theatre] for me as a playwright and for this play over the coming year. I have high hopes that the endorsement of such a well-recognized regional theater will work as a catalyst for developing my career as an emerging writer."

The Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition is a one-of-a-kind national competition that transitions student playwrights to the world of professional theatre. Each year, approximately 30 graduate playwriting programs across the country are invited to have their final-year students submit a play to the competition. An in-house panel of readers at the Alliance Theatre reads and evaluates the scripts, and selects a slate of finalists to be advanced in the competition. Those scripts are sent to a national panel of three theatre artists for judging. In conjunction with Alliance Theatre leadership, the judges select the winner. The Alliance Theatre produces the winning play on the 200-seat Hertz Stage.