Sheri M. Goldhirsch, Artistic Director of Young Playwrights Inc., Has Died

Sheri M. Goldhirsch, artistic director of the New York-based producing organization Young Playwrights Inc., died on September 22 at the age of 55. Her death was the result of liver failure.

Born in Brooklyn on January 23, 1960, Goldhirsch attended Stuyvesant High School and Pace University. She first began working with Young Playwrights in 1982 as an intern before rising to managing director and, eventually, artistic director in 1993.

Founded by Stephen Sondheim in 1981, Young Playwrights Inc. is the only professional theater in the United States solely dedicated to identifying, developing, producing, and promoting playwrights aged 18 and under. The theater now operates under the leadership of playwright David Henry Hwang.

Goldhirsch is also listed as a producer of the 2005 benefit event Children and Art, which was a Tribute to Stephen Sondheim on the eve of his 75th Birthday. The event's participants included Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Lansbury, Audra McDonald, Neil Patrick Harris, Anne Hathaway, Patti LuPone, and Elaine Stritch, among many others.

Stephen Sondheim eulogized Goldhirsch on the Young Playwrights Inc.'s website, saying, "The untimely passing of Sheri Goldhirsch is not only a shock to me, but to the entire Young Playwrights Inc. family — a large one, consisting as it does not only of the seven Board Members, but also the 32,300 writers 18 years and younger who have entered their plays in the annual competition (the 340 Winners of which have, as a result, been lucky enough to see their plays professionally staged or produced). Sheri read every one of those plays during her thirty-four years of running the organization, and wrote personal acknowledgments to the playwrights. Sheri devoted her entire career to encouraging young people to find their creative roots and let them grow. Our loss is their loss, and it is a mighty one."

The website goes on to state, "Sheri is survived by a close-knit circle of friends and several generations of American playwrights."