History

The National New Play Network was founded in 1998 by  then Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center Special Programs Director David Goldman with the support and encouragement of Founder and Chairman George C. White.  They believed that new play development in the next generation should be regionalized by linking producing and developmental theatres around the country with their playwriting communities.

In June, 1998, Goldman and White convened a group of artistic and managing leaders from thirteen professional theatres across the country that had demonstrated a proven commitment to the development and production of new plays. Over the next two years, relationships were formed and annual conferences were held in 1999 and 2000.  The 2000 Conference coincided with Prop Thtr Group’s New Plays 2000 Festival in Chicago.

Subsequent conferences have been hosted by Mixed Blood in Minneapolis (2001), InterAct in Philadelphia (2002), Kitchen Dog in Dallas (2003), Prop Thtr in Chicago (2004), Stanford University in Stanford (2005), Curious Theatre in Denver (2006), New Rep in Boston (2007), and Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis (2008).

Accomplishments

Since its founding in 1998, the National New Play Network has

• commissioned over a dozen playwrights
• mounted nearly one hundred new-play readings in its National Showcase
• provided seven MFA graduates with paid residencies
• administered one of the best-funded new play prizes in the country, and
• supported nearly 70 productions nationwide through its innovative Continued Life of New Plays Fund, which creates “rolling world premieres” of new plays. 

Many of these writers and plays have gone on to prestigious lives beyond the Network, garnering Pulitzer, Steinberg and Blackburn Prize nominations, as well as dozens of productions across the globe. All told, hundreds of artists have gained employment through these and other efforts in the 24 regions of the country where NNPN member theaters are currently located.

In addition to its grant-making programs, NNPN harnesses the power of its network through both an Annual Conference and a vigorous Literary Division. The latter manages the Script Exchange, a network of member theater literary managers and dramaturgs which promotes non-programmatic cooperation on new plays of merit. Through this effort, more than twenty-five plays have received over sixty full productions, including plays by Eric Coble, Kirsten Greenidge, and Lee Blessing.