New Play Development

Karishma Bhagani asks: “How do we, the Kenyan artist community, choose to understand our place in this contemporary, independent nation? And how do we use our art to express the realities of our contemporary experience in Kenya?”

Flo Low interviews Israeli theatremaker Ruth Kanner about what she calls “storytelling theatre,” her experience teaching in an American classroom, the impact of cross-cultural exchange, and more.

In this virtual keynote, Todd London reflects on the nature of new work and the social cooperation inherent to making theatre.

In the second half of this two-part deep dive, playwright John J King continues his exploration into self-producing, looking at the production phase and marketing.

In the first half of this two-part deep dive, playwright John J King looks at the world of self-producing, touching on building a mission statement, budget concerns, and the script development process.

Through the lens of developing his show Gasping Whiteness, Will MacAdams talks about the value of creating theatre in partnership with community organizers.

HowlRound’s director, Jamie Gahlon, talks with theatremaker Mihaela Drăgan about contemporary Roma theatre and the artistic movement Roma Futurism.

Madeleine George and Mike Lew talk about writing comedy for theatre, vulnerability as playwrights, working with different aesthetics, and more.

Kristin Leahey, PhD explores the impact of the Colorado New Play Festival and its accompanying conference.

Amanda Shank, associate artistic director of California’s CalArts Center for New Performance, talks about bringing an international, cross-cultural collaboration to life with Warsaw’s STUDIO teatrgaleria.

Rehana Lew Mirza and Melinda Lopez talk being playwrights as well as actors and teachers, critiquing their own work, their individual work processes, and more.

Clare Hennessy discusses the challenges of developing a play that sheds light on eating disorders—depicting them accurately, avoiding triggers—and offers suggestions for other writers in a similar position.

Caridad Svich shares a correspondence she had with playwright and theatremaker Will Arbery, touching on topics of writing about bleakness and despair, a play’s relationship to breath, faith and faithlessness, and more.

Enid Brain discusses the experience of creating a piece of theatre in the dark, the theory of “rasa,” the act of performance, and more.

Playwright and professor Theresa May talks about creating a show about the planet, Sky Woman, and the Youth Climate Movement, and how collaborating with students enhanced the development process.

Playwrights Kirsten Greenidge and Peter Nachtrieb talk about what it means to be an artist in residence, how theatres constantly work on their mission, connecting with the community, and more.   

Eric Marlin reflects on theatre’s ephemerality, connecting the notion to capitalism, technology, legacies, and more.

Ben Barson and Gizelxanath Rodriguez, part of the Afro Yaqui Music Collective, talk about artivism—what it means, what it can look like—in relation to building a jazz opera with various communities around the world.

Playwright Peter Nachtrieb and artistic director of San Francisco’s Z Space, Lisa Steindler, talk about the National Playwright Residency Program, getting out of your comfort zone, making a living as a writer, and more.

Jerrod Bogard talks about sexism, theatre, and unpacking his invisible knapsack.

Applications for the third round of the National Playwright Residency Program, an intervention into the traditional relationships between artists and institutions, are now live!

Roxanna Myhrum looks at the history of the iconic puppet show Punch and Judy and Sarah Nolen’s feminist adaptation of it, Judy Save the Day.