26 MILES by Quiara Alegría Hudes
SUNLIGHT by Sharr White
Sunl..
26 MILES by Quiara Alegría Hudes
JERICHO by Jack Canfora
AFTERLIFE : A GHOST STORY by Steve Yockey

“NNPN really acts as a new play grapevine. Because member theaters are in regular contact, they get to know each theater's mission and tastes and a recommendation from one member to another is much more meaningful. Those relationships have helped my work find a home. ”

-Allison Moore, Hazard County, Collapse
 

“In grad school I was writing politically, socially-derived works, not blockbusters. I saw very little future for my voice. Then NNPN invited me in... I am not only a better writer because of my association with them, but I am a better artist, and witnessing their generosity, a better person. ”

-Sean Christopher Lewis, Playwright-in-Residence 2008

 

“The Smith Prize was a great shot in the arm for me. It served as a valuable affirmation from my peers that my work is both of a high quality and exploring important issues. ”

-Seth Rozin, 2007 Smith Prizewinner, Black Gold

“I was and remain deeply honored and encouraged by the Smith Prize… I love that the prize is awarded to a script and not a production… I love that NNPN is working against premiere-itis.”

-Y York, 2008 Smith Prizewinner, ...And LA is Burning

“The National New Play Network is so vital and necessary - one of those really bright ideas - that one wonders why it took so long for theaters to get together and create it.”

-Yussef El Guindi, Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes

 

 

“[NNPN’s] professional network is as vital (and unique) as the artistic support -- I've not found any other group that offers both.”

-Eric Coble, For Better

"The generosity and vitality of this unique and much needed organization ultimately benefits playwrights, theatres, audiences and the culture."

-David Rambo, The Ice Breaker

“In an industry as competitive, as unstable, and as personal as theater, the acknowledgment from a national body of professional theaters that the Emerging Playwright Residency gives a young writer is invaluable.”

-Jennifer Fawcett, Playwright-in-Residence 2009

“NNPN not only lives up to its mission of championing ‘the development, production, and continued life of new plays,’ but also champions the authors of those new plays in the long journey from page to stage.”

-John Biguenet, Rising Water, Shotgun

“[CLNPF] secures for the playwright not simply a 'product' (the premiere) – but a process (the ongoing series of productions)... The model – giving several theatres a crack at a new work, giving a writer several chances at their revisions – is a godsend."

-Steven Dietz, Yankee Tavern

 

Collaborative Literary Office

NNPN’s programs have always relied on collaborative literary engagement to succeed.  Our flagship program, the Continued Life of New Plays Fund, generates Rolling World Premieres through inter-theater script-sharing, active solicitation on the part of the NNPN staff, and through the National Showcase of New Plays (itself a collaboratively-sourced and –selected new play event).  Many of our other programs – the Playwright Residencies, the MFA Playwrights Workshop, and the annual NNPN commission – are similarly driven by collaborative dramaturgical efforts.  And NNPN’s longstanding Literary Committee hosts monthly online literary chats for members, and biannual in-person pitch sessions which crowd-source the breadth of knowledge represented by our member theaters and frequently result in plays reaching production.  Almost ninety percent of plays in NNPN’s Showcase go on to production; more than a hundred scripts have found their way to the stage thanks to online literary chats.  

The Network is now formalizing these efforts, designing three initiatives as part of its Collaborative Literary Office:

VIRTUAL SCRIPT LIBRARY

The foundation of NNPN's Collaborative Literary Office, the VSL hosts an archive of all the plays that have been produced through or with the support of NNPN programs, as well as a number of "Reading Rooms" designed to help core member theaters, alumni playwrights, and invited guests trade scripts.  In addition to the program archives, these Reading Rooms include:

  • Alumni Plays Reading Room (alumni of our main programs can upload one script every six months)
  • Commission Partners Reading Room (with contributions from Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Arena, Berkeley Rep, Oregon Shakes, South Coast Rep and Yale Rep)
  • Literary Managers Reading Room for plays under consideration by member theaters
  • Crowd-sourced virtual library of new plays produced by NNPN theaters

ALUMNI PLAYWRIGHT PROGRAM

Once NNPN members have chosen to invest in a play, the Network wants to develop a lifelong relationship with the playwright.  The Network's Alumni Playwright Program is designed to do that by:

  • Offering travel stipends to the National Showcase of New Plays available on first-come, first-served basis to alumni playwrights
  • Providing access for alumni of our main programs to their own online Reading Room, which allows them to submit new plays to all of our members with the click of a button
  • Creating an Alumni Playwright Council to advise the Network about its programming and issues of importance to playwrights

CROWD-SOURCED DRAMATURGY AND LITERARY MANAGEMENT

The extension of NNPN's existing collaborative programs make use of inexpensive technology to enhance the membership's ability to share information about plays of interest, and create crowd-sourced dramaturgy for Rolling World Premieres.

  • Monthly online literary chats and biannual in-person pitch sessions
  • Virtual crowd-sourced dramaturgy for Rolling World Premieres 
  • Crowd-sourced Festival Reporting with online evaluations and script archives by event 
  • Crowd-sourced playwright/agent contact information