JOHN GUARE: A YOUNGARTS MASTERCLASS Airs on HBO Today

Each year, thousands of high school students apply to the National YoungArts Foundation to be mentored by the world's leading artists. In this all-new YoungArts MasterClass special, John Guare: A YOUNGARTS MASTERCLASS, award-winning playwright John Guare prepares three talented mentees, Caroline Durlacher, Sharon Jan and Drew Dickerson for a career in writing.

The special will air today, March 4 at 7:30pm EST/6:30pm CT on HBO and HBOGO. It will be available on HBO ON-DEMAND starting Tuesday, March 5.

Selected by YoungArts, an organization that identifies and supports the next generation of artists and contributes to the cultural vitality of the nation, the student playwrights receive individual instruction from Guare at the American Academy in Rome, discover the ruins of the ancient city, and write monologues drawing on their experiences.

In 2011, MasterClass received an Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Children's Nonfiction, Reality or Reality-Competition Program. For more on the show, visit www.youngarts.org/youngarts-masterclass.

John Guare: A YoungArts Masterclass is a production of Simon & Goodman Picture Company; produced and directed by Oscar and Emmy winners Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon.

American playwright and author John Guare is the author of numerous plays including The House of Blue Leaves (1971) which won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play in 1971 and went on to win four Tony Awards for its 1986 revival. He also wrote Six Degrees of Separation (1990) which won an Obie Award, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, an Olivier Award for Best Play, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Guare received the Award of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his plays The House of Blue Leaves, Rich and Famous, Marco Polo Sings a Solo, Landscape of the Body and Bosoms and Neglect.

The National YoungArts Foundation (formerly known as the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts) was established in 1981 by Lin and Ted Arison to identify and support the next generation of artists, and to contribute to the cultural vitality of the nation by investing in the artistic development of talented young artists in the visual, literary, and performing arts. YoungArts provides emerging artists with life-changing experiences with renowned mentors, access to significant scholarships, national recognition, and other opportunities throughout their careers to help ensure that the nation's most outstanding emerging artists are encouraged to pursue careers in the arts.

To date, YoungArts has honored more than 16,000 young artists with over $6 million in monetary awards; facilitated in excess of $100 million in college scholarship opportunities; and enabled its participants to work with master teachers who are among the most distinguished artists in the world, such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jacques d'Amboise, Plácido Domingo, Bill T. Jones, Quincy Jones and Martin Scorsese. In addition, at the request of the Commission on Presidential Scholars, which is appointed by the President of the United States, YoungArts serves as the exclusive nominating agency for the U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts, the country's highest honor for artistically talented high school seniors.