The National New Play Network is an alliance of leading nonprofit theaters that champion the development, production and continued life of new plays. NNPN strives to pioneer, implement and disseminate ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights.

Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has commissioned over a dozen playwrights, provided seven MFA graduates with paid residencies, and supported nearly 70 productions nationwide through its innovative Continued Life of New Plays Fund, which creates “rolling world premieres” of new plays. Through these activities and others, NNPN has granted nearly a half million dollars to theaters and artists in the past ten years. All told, hundreds of artists have gained employment through these efforts in the 24 regions of the country where NNPN member theaters are located.

RATIONALE

The continued life of important new plays of quality is vital to the health of the American Theater. Across the country, hundreds of new plays by emerging and established writers are developed each year, yet only a handful receive full productions on the regional professional theatre circuit. Among the plays that do receive world premieres, only a fraction receive second, third and fourth productions at theaters outside their immediate region. Without subsequent productions, plays have little opportunity to evolve artistically or to generate significant critical attention and momentum. And while there are numerous funding opportunities for play development and world premieres, there are none devoted to the continued life of new plays.

Without the "hype" generated by an Off-Broadway run or a major festival, new plays struggle to attract audiences equal to that of classic plays, musicals and star-studded pre-Broadway tryouts. And even after a new play has had a successful premiere in a region, it remains a risky venture for a theater elsewhere - especially if that theater can't claim its production is a "world premiere." NNPN provides alternative production models - and a new definition of the phrase "world premiere" - to ensure that new plays of quality secure a continued life.

INSTITUTIONAL GOALS

The National New Play Network seeks to:

• facilitate the exchange of new works among member theaters and other theaters across America and around the world
• strengthen member theaters' ability to develop and produce new work in their own communities
• cultivate an informed, passionate and supportive audience for new works of theater in the future
• use the development of new theater works to create a deeper relationship between member theaters and their communities
• develop regional and national funding sources to support the creation, production and continued life of new works.

WHO ARE NNPN'S MEMBERS?

Much like the successful regional theater efforts of the 1950's, NNPN members see themselves as the vanguard of a new revolution in American Theater. We have come to feel that the box office- driven concerns of larger regional theaters no longer allow artistic risk, especially in the area of new play production and development. Small-to-midsize theaters are more capable of trying new ideas and more able to form intimate relationships with playwrights and their communities, providing theatre experiences that are new, interesting and vital.

NNPN members know that playwrights are the true chroniclers of our times. Very few of them receive large-scale regional and New York productions; yet there are scores of excellent playwrights working in all parts of the country, with voices that are both regional and universal. There are scores more who would write plays, if there was an environment where the work and its future was supported. These writers bring us important messages about ourselves and our world, many are pushing the boundaries of dramatic structure to provide new insights into our humanity. They will not be heard in venues whose focus is consistently mainstream.

NNPN is more than an organization designed to advocate and market for a specific artistic discipline, more than a trade organization where self-interest (however enlightened) is the primary goal of membership (although advocacy and marketing are certainly a part of NNPN's mission). It is its focus on an external ideal -- the nurturing and continued life of new works for the stage -- and the insistence on a cooperative process amongst its members to attain that ideal which makes NNPN a place where the values of collaboration over competition and service over self-promotion predominate. NNPN's programs reflect this cooperative spirit.