Experienced playwrights will help emerging Yale dramatists learn about life behind the theatrical scenes as part of a new partnership between the School of Drama and New Dramatists, the nation's leading theater development center and writers colony.

The collaboration features a concentrated internship program, playwrighting mentorships, and a series of workshops and classes taught by Yale faculty and New Dramatists members, culminating in professional readings of the Yale students' work. The program is codirected by Todd London, artistic director of New Dramatists, and Mark Bly, chair of the playwriting program at the School of Drama and associate artistic director of the Yale Repertory Theatre.

"Our partnership with Yale promises to further New Dramatists' mission of developing emerging writers by seeding the future," says London. "Playwrights are well-suited to guiding younger writers through the difficulties and possibilities of a life in theater."

According to Bly, the new partnership is "a natural continuation of Yale's existing training program that features some of America's leading playwrights and play development.."

Through the partnership, second-year students in Yale's M.F.A. playwriting program are paired with one of New Dramatists' 40 member playwrights, who serve as mentors to the Yale dramatists as they participate in the 10-week Bernard B. Jacobs Internship Program at the writers colony's headquarters in New York. As the Yale playwrights work on various readings and workshops, they learn about the process of play development and can establish formative relationships with selected playwrights, directors, actors, dramaturgs and New Dramatists administrators. In their third year at Yale, the students return to New Dramatists to work with their playwrighting mentors, New Dramatists staff and Bly to mount a professional reading of their own scripts.

The first of these presentations, titled the Yale Playwrights at New Dramatists Play-reading Series, took place on Jan. 15 in New York. Works by Yale students Cahir O'Doherty, Sunil Kuruvilla and Barbara Labinger were presented. The young dramatists were mentored by Chay Yew, Eddie Sanchez and Kate Moira Ryan, respectively.