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EST History

Members of the Staff

Members of the Board

Artistic Members

Donors and Sponsors

HISTORY
The Ensemble Studio Theatre is a not-for-profit developmental theatre founded by Curt Dempster and a loose-knit group of fellow theater artists during a fertile period Off Broadway between 1968 and 1972.  EST’s founders had two primary goals in creating the company: to nurture individual theatre artists and to develop new American plays.   

EST nurtures individual artists through its free membership program, which offers lifetime membership in the company to diverse theater artists selected via a competitive application process.  Demonstrated talent and keen interest in collaboration and contributing to EST’s community are the criteria for admission.   The emphasis is on talent.  EST currently lists more than 500 theatre artists on its membership roster.  Collectively the group has won every major prize or award in theater, film and television, including Pulitzer Prizes, Oscars, Tony Awards, Emmy Awards, Obie Awards and Susan Smith Blackburn Awards.

EST’s goal to develop new American plays has resulted in a record of achievement that rivals any theater in the U.S. in terms of quantity and quality of output, with a total of more than 6,000 plays developed and produced since 1972 featuring many of the finest playwrights, directors and performers working in the theater.  Each year, EST produces over 150 projects, including readings and workshops of new works-in-progress and fully produced Mainstage productions, including many U.S. and world premieres.

EST’s Annual Marathon of One-Act Plays has been widely credited for reviving the one-act play form, inspiring many similar festivals across the country.  The EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Project is national and international in scope and provides significant resources for the commissioning, development and production of plays that illuminate the worlds of science and technology. EST’s legendary Literary Department continues to accept unsolicited play scripts, providing an important and rare opportunity for consideration of works by new playwrights.