“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

“[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

“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

“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

“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

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

-David Rambo, The Ice Breaker

“I can't say enough about the impact the Continued Life Program had on my play. That elusive and desirable thing called 'buzz' that consecutive productions can create… very much became the case for Love Person. Three productions grew to six thanks to NNPN.”

-Aditi Brennan Kapil

“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

“[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

“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

Tickets On Sale for the Smith Prize Benefit Performance of George Brant's GROUNDED

2012 Smith Prize Benefit

WASHINGTON, DC / Monday, November 12, 2012 / 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Join us for a staged reading of George Brant's 2012 Smith Prizewinning Play, Grounded, directed by Georgetown University's Derek Goldman, and starring Woolly Mammoth company member Kimberly Gilbert, at the Devine Studio Theatre on Georgetown University's campus. Tickets are $50 each, and support the 2013 Smith Prize. A dessert reception will precede the reading of the play.

Seamlessly blending the personal and the political, Grounded tells the story of a hot-rod F16 fighter pilot whose unexpected pregnancy ends her career in the sky. Repurposed to flying remote-controlled drones in Afghanistan from an air-conditioned trailer near Vegas, the Pilot struggles through surreal twelve-hour shifts far from the battlefield, hunting terrorists by day and being a wife and mother by night. A tour de force play for one actress, Grounded flies from the heights of lyricism to the shallows of workaday existence, targeting our assumptions about war, family, and the power of storytelling.

Tickets are $50 each and are tax-deductible. To purchase tickets online with a credit card, click here to be taken to NNPN's PayPal page . In the "Notes to Seller" section, indicate the number of tickets you're purchasing. To purchase tickets by phone, call General Manager Jojo Ruf at 202-349-1283, or you may email her to reserve at Jojo@nnpn.org. Checks may be mailed to NNPN, 641 D Street NW, Washington, DC 20004. Click here for directions to the Devine Studio Theatre.

George Brant’s plays include Elephant’s Graveyard, The Mourners’ Bench, Any Other Name, Grizzly Mama, Salvage, Three Voyages of the Lobotomobile, Defiant, Good on Paper and Dark Room. His work has been produced and developed by such companies as Trinity Repertory Company, the Kennedy Center, Cleveland Play House, Asolo Rep, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The Playwrights’ Center, WordBRIDGE Playwright’s Lab, the Hangar Theatre, Equity Library Theatre, Premiere Stages, Florida Studio Theatre, Trustus Theatre, Elemental Theatre Collective, Balagan Theatre, the Drama League, the Disney Channel, Factory Theatre, Debutantes and Vagabonds, StreetSigns Theatre Company, and zeppo theater company, among others. His scripts have been awarded the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center, the Keene Prize for Literature, and an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for 2012. He has received writing fellowships from the James A. Michener Center for Writers, the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the Blue Mountain Center as well as commissions from Dobama Theatre and Theatre 4. George received his MFA in Writing from the University of Texas at Austin and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. His scripts are published by Samuel French and Smith & Kraus.