The doors close as a latecomer scurries to his seat. The house lights dim, cell phones are shut off, streams of conversation fade to a trickle before being replaced by complete silence.
All eyes focus intently ahead, as the lights go up on an event three long years in the making.
The music starts to play, the actors take the stage, and the long-awaited Young Playwrights Festival 2000 is off and running. The works ran the gamut of subject and tone, from the downright zany to the poignant. The evening was capped off by Gemma Cooper-Novack 's poignant look at death and its emotional aftermath, I'm Coming In Soon . To herald in the season, YPI hosted an opening night gala at the theater. The high spirits ushered in by this upbeat evening pervaded the Festival's run, as night after night audiences left the theater moved and full of praise.