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The National New Play Network (NNPN) is the United States' "alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays.". [1] It was founded in 1998 by David Goldman. [2]
NNPN's flagship program, the Rolling World Premiere program is a unique model of developing and producing new plays across the country. Each RWP supports three or more theaters that choose to mount the same new play within a 12-month period, allowing the playwright to develop a new work with multiple creative teams in multiple communities. The playwright is part of the process, working on the script and making adjustments based on what is learned from each production and from each city. To-date, NNPN has produced over 85 Rolling World Premieres, totaling over 275 productions.
The New Play Exchange is the world's largest database of plays by living writers. Launched in 2015, [3] the database has grown to include more than 24,000 scripts by more than 6,00 authors.
In 2011, NNPN established its Producers in Residence program to support season-long residencies at NNPN Core Member theaters for individuals who wish dedicate their careers (or the next phase of their careers) to the creation and production of new work. Selected producers are given a home within a professional theater in which they can supplement their skills, increase their knowledge of the day to day operations of a company focused on new work, and be introduced as theater-makers to a community.
Established in 2002, The National Showcase of New Plays is an annual 3-day event that showcases unproduced plays from across the country. Artistic leaders, literary managers, and other staff from Member Theaters, as well as literary agents, publishers, and independent producers are invited to attend.
NNPN annually gives two major commissions.
The Annual Commission is a $10,000 award given to at least one proposal each year. Core Members nominate proposals for consideration, and the winning Member Theater is responsible for the administration and development of the commissioned play.
The NNPN Smith Prize for American Theatre is a $5,000 award nominated by a Member Theater and given to an early-career playwright who has been a participant in other NNPN programs to write a play examining the American body politic. The Member Theater who submits the nomination earns up to $2,500 for a developmental workshop of the play. Additionally, the first theater to full produce the commissioned play is awarded an additional $2,500.
| Core Members [4] | Associate Members |
|---|---|
| 16th Street Theater | 59E59 Theaters |
| Actor’s Express | A Contemporary Theatre |
| Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte | Amphibian Stage Productions |
| B Street Theatre | Artists Repertory Theatre |
| City Theatre Company | Azuka Theatre |
| Cleveland Public Theatre | Baltimore Center Stage |
| Company One Theatre | Bloomington Playwrights Project |
| Contemporary American Theater Festival | BLUEBARN Theatre |
| Curious Theatre Company | Boston Court Pasadena |
| Florida Studio Theatre | Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company |
| Fountain Theatre | Capital Stage Company |
| Horizon Theatre Company | Centenary Stage Company |
| InterAct Theatre Company | CenterStage at the JCC |
| Kitchen Dog Theater | Central Works Theater Company |
| Magic Theatre | Children's Theatre Company |
| Marin Theatre Company | City Theatre |
| Milagro | Creede Repertory Theatre |
| Mixed Blood Theater | Cumberland County Playhouse |
| New Jersey Repertory Company | DCPA Theatre Company |
| New Repertory Theatre | Diversionary Theatre |
| Orlando Shakespeare Theater | Everyman Theatre |
| Perseverance Theatre | Florida Repertory Theatre |
| Phoenix Theatre | Flying V Theatre |
| PROP Thtr | Geva Theatre Center |
| Riverside Theatre | Greenway Court Theatre |
| Salt Lake Acting Company | Gulfshore Playhouse |
| San Diego REPertory Theatre | Halcyon Theatre |
| Silk Road Rising | History Theatre |
| Southern Rep Theatre | IAMA Theatre Company |
| Unicorn Theatre | Island City Stage |
| Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company | Know Theatre of Cincinnati |
| Writers Theatre of New Jersey | LOCAL Theater Company |
| Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble | |
| Milwaukee Repertory Theater | |
| Minnesota Jewish Theater Company | |
| Montana Repertory Theatre | |
| Moving Arts | |
| Moxie Theatre | |
| Native Voices at the Autry | |
| New Conservatory Theatre Center | |
| New Light Theater Project | |
| NewYorkRep | |
| Olney Theatre Center | |
| Oregon Contemporary Theatre | |
| Out of Hand Theater | |
| Pacific Resident Theatre | |
| Palm Beach Dramaworks | |
| People's Light | |
| Phoenix Arts Association Theatre | |
| Plan-B Theatre Company | |
| PlayGround | |
| PlayMakers Repertory Company | |
| Portland Center Stage | |
| PYGmalion Theatre Company | |
| Redtwist Theatre | |
| Renaissance Theaterworks | |
| Rep Stage | |
| Rivendell Theater Ensemble | |
| Road Less Traveled Productions | |
| Rogue Machine Theatre | |
| Rorschach Theatre | |
| Round House Theatre | |
| San Francisco Playhouse | |
| Shadowland Stages | |
| Shrewd Productions | |
| Simpatico Theatre | |
| Skylight Theatre Company | |
| South Coast Repertory | |
| Stageworks | |
| Su Teatro | |
| Taproot Theatre Company | |
| Teatro Vista | |
| The Custom Made Theatre Company | |
| The NOLA Project | |
| The Wilbury Theatre Group | |
| Theater Alliance | |
| Theater J | |
| Theatre 3 | |
| Theatre Exile | |
| Theatre NOVA | |
| Thrown Stone Theatre Company | |
| Trinity Rep | |
| Vermont Stage Company | |
| Virginia Repertory Theatre | |
| Vortex Repertory Company | |
| Weston Playhouse Theatre Company | |
| Williamston Theatre | |
| Zoetic Stage |
Earplay was the longest-running of the formal series of radio drama anthologies on National Public Radio, produced by WHA in Madison, Wisconsin and heard from 1972 into the 1990s. It approached radio drama as an art form with scripts written by such leading playwrights as Edward Albee, Arthur Kopit, Archibald MacLeish and David Mamet.
The Australian Writers' Guild (AWG) is the professional association for Australian performance writers for film, television, radio, theatre, video, and new media. The AWG was established in 1962, and has conferred the AWGIE Awards since 1968, the Monte Miller Awards since 1972, and the John Hinde Award since 2008.
Carolyn Gage is an American playwright, actor, theatrical director and author. She has written nine books on lesbian theater and sixty-five plays, musicals, and one-woman shows. A lesbian feminist, her work emphasizes non-traditional roles for women and lesbian characters.
Scotch'n'Soda is a student-run theatre organization that resides on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University. Its initial dedication was the creation and production of original musicals, but has now taken to performing both professionally published and student-written materials. Students are welcome to write, compose, design, direct, perform in, and otherwise become involved with every aspect of each production. The organization is open to all Carnegie Mellon students from all backgrounds who are interested, and all performances are public with varying ticket prices.
Steven Dietz is an American playwright, theatre director, and teacher. Called "the most ubiquitous American playwright whose name you may never have heard", Dietz has long been one of America's most prolific and widely produced playwrights. In 2019, Dietz was again named one of the 20 most-produced playwrights in America.
South Coast Repertory (SCR) is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.
Playwrights' Center is a non-profit theatre organization focused on both supporting playwrights and promoting new plays to production at theaters. It is located in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. In October of 2020, the organization announced plans to move to a larger space in St. Paul.
The Fountain Theatre is a theatre in Los Angeles. Along with its programming of live theatre, it's also the foremost producer of flamenco on the West Coast.
Lisa Loomer is an American playwright and screenwriter who has also worked as an actress and stand-up comic. She is best known for her play The Waiting Room (1994), in which three women from different time periods meet in a modern doctor's waiting room, each suffering from the effects of their various societies' cosmetic body modification practices. She also co-wrote the screenplay for the film Girl, Interrupted. Many of her plays deal with the experiences of Latinas and immigrant characters. Others deal with social and political issues through the lens of contemporary family life. Beyond that, Loomer's play The Waiting Room discusses issues such as body image, breast cancer, and non-Western medicine.
William Missouri Downs is an American comedy writer, playwright, screenwriter, stage director, and author.
WP Theater is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater based in New York City. It is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of Women+ theater artists of all kinds at every stage in their careers. Lisa McNulty serves as the Producing Artistic Director and Michael Sag serves as the managing director.
Boise Contemporary Theater (BCT) is a professional theater company located in Boise, Idaho. Since 1997, BCT has been the only professional theater company in southeastern Idaho committed to performing a complete season of contemporary work.
Ars Nova is an Off-Broadway, non-profit theater in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Ars Nova develops and produces theater, comedy and music created by artists in the early stages of their careers. Besides its Off-off Broadway home in Hell's Kitchen, Ars Nova also operates the former Barrow Street Theatre at Greenwich House as a space for Off-Broadway productions.
In the fall of 2015, the Washington, D.C. region's professional theaters combined to produce the Women's Voices Theater Festival. The festival consisted of over 50 companies each presenting a world premiere production of a work by one or more female playwrights. The festival claimed to be "the largest collaboration of theater companies working simultaneously to produce original works by female writers in history". The Coordinating Producers of the Women's Voices Theater Festival were Nan Barnett of the National New Play Network (NNPN) and former NNPN General Manager Jojo Ruf. The honorary committee supporting the festival was chaired by first lady Michelle Obama and included actors Allison Janney and Tea Leoni and playwrights Beth Henley, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lynn Nottage.
The Kilroys' List is a gender parity initiative to end the "systematic underrepresentation of female and trans playwrights" in the American theater industry. Gender disparity is defined as the gap of unproduced playwrights' whose plays are being discriminated against based on the writer's gender identification and intersectional identities of race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, age, and ability. Recent statistical research released in November 2015, entitled The Count, gathered that 22% of total surveyed professional productions from 2011-2013 annual seasons were written by women playwrights, 3.8% of the total were written by women playwrights of color, and 0.4% of the total were written by foreign women playwrights of color. 78% of total surveyed professional productions were written by men playwrights.
Cándido Tirado is a Puerto Rican playwright who moved to the Bronx from Caguas, Puerto Rico at age 11. Tirado is currently a resident playwright for Teatro Vista in New York City. In the United States his works have been produced by theater companies such as Teatro Vista, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, and the Goodman Theatre. His works have also been produced outside of the United States, in places such as the Dominican Republic and the Canary Islands. Tirado has taken part in directing and writing for INTAR theater's annual one-minute play festival.
Hilary Bettis is a playwright, a producer, and a writer.
Audrey Cefaly is an American playwright.
Aditi Brennan Kapil is an American playwright and screenwriter.
Ike Holter is an American playwright. He won a Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for drama in 2017. Holter is a resident playwright at Victory Gardens Theater, and has been commissioned by The Kennedy Center, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, South Coast Repertory and The Playwrights' Center.