Roger Q. Mason, Sarah Mantell and More to Join PlayPenn's 2026 New Play Conference

PlayPenn’s nationally recognized New Play Development Conference will bring together readings of new plays alongside a citywide series of civic gatherings, workshops, artist exchanges, and public conversations focusing on art, democracy, historical memory, belonging, and collective imagination. This community-focused approach to new play development reflects a broader vision of theatre in a shared civic life that illuminates what theatre can do, who participates in it, how it unfolds, and why it matters.

Serving as the centerpiece for the Conference are new plays that ask audiences to reconsider the architecture of freedom, featuring new works by 2026 Creative Capital Awardee Roger Q. Mason (The Duat, Philadelphia Theatre Company), PlayPenn Foundry alum and Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner Sarah Mantell (In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot, Playwrights Horizons), and newcomer Zoe Palmer.

The 19-event Conference brings together over 30 playwrights participating across workshops, conversations, and six new work presentations, while expanding its scope to include an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Eboni Booth (Primary Trust), free playwriting workshops for adults and teens, a writing workshop for women over 50, and a public conversation examining constitutional history and civic identity.

Additional programming includes a community workshop for queer theatre makers; a convening on innovation in theatre-making with leaders from Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Cannonball Festival, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Lemonade Stand, and Tiny Dynamite; and an acting lab focused on approaches to new play development and cross-community exchanges among theatre artists.

“Curating a conference in Philadelphia during the country’s 250th anniversary means engaging difficult questions about whose stories are protected, whose histories are remembered, and who gets to belong in public life. I hope our events give audiences a way to grapple with those ideas,” said Che’Rae Adams, Artistic Director of PlayPenn.

This year’s Conference celebrates the nation’s 250th anniversary and features contributions from a distinguished group of guest artists and institutional leaders including Nancy Boykin (The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington), Mathilde Dratwa (Dirty Laundry), Tyler Dobrowsky (Macbeth in Stride), L M Feldman (Another Kind of Silence), Dr. Melissa Benbow Flowers (1838 Black Metropolis), Danilo Gambini (CATS: The Jellicle Ball), Donovan Hagins (A Matter of 2nds), Mijuel K. Johnson (The Black Journey), Nick Jonczak (Trinity), James Kern (The Contrast), Taibi Magar (Is God Is), Amrita Ramanan (The Waterfall), Rayne (COMET), Charlie Thurston (Tony Award-Winning Liberation), Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters (Esther Choi and the Fish that Drowned), and partnerships with Cannonball Festival, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Philadelphia Young Playwrights.

Highlights from the 19-event Conference in Philadelphia include:
 

Friday, July 17

The Dream We Were Promised: The U.S. Constitution and the Struggle Toward Belonging 
 
A public conversation examining constitutional history and the modern challenges of civil rights in America. Guests inculde Mijuel K. Johnson of The Black Journey - The African-American History Walking Tour of Philadelphia and Dr. Melissa Benbow Flowers of 1838 Black Metropolis.

Monday, July 20

PlayPenn Solo Fest!
 
Featuring Mathilde Dratwa and 11 playwrights from across the country sharing work-in-progress excerpts from their new one-person shows.

Saturday, July 25 - Philadelphia Reading
Monday, July 27 - New York City Reading

Bill by Roger Q. Mason
 
Directed by Danilo Gambini
Dramaturgy by Amrita Ramanan
Featuring Rayne, David Ingram, Nick Jonczak, Anthony Martinez-Briggs, Roger Q. Mason, and Charlie Thurston
 
Democracy is dead to begin with, and Taffeta, a Black queer femme of impossible brilliance, refuses to be this country’s janitor once again. But a stranger forces Taffeta to confront whether the country she’s inherited is worth fighting for, or whether it deserves to be rebuilt at all, forcing her to choose a louder, riskier dream. 
 
A sequel to Roger Q. Mason's Lavender Men, their new play excavates U.S. Constitutional history and asks who was intentionally excluded from the founding vision of “We, the People.”

Wednesday, July 29

PlayPenn Presents Eboni Booth Live
 
An intimate conversation with one of the most produced playwrights in the country and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Primary Trust.
 
Saturday, August 1

Living Out Loud: Writing Radical Futures with Roger Q. Mason
 
A half-day creative gathering of queer writing, discussion, and visioning, culminating in a sharing of short pieces that imagine radical futures for America.

Saturday, August 1

Emergence by Zoe Palmer
Presented in association with Philadelphia Young Playwrights (PYP)
 
Directed by James Kern
Dramaturgy by Madeline Charne
Philadelphia Young Playwright Resident Producer/ Mentor, Donovan Hagins

Before birth, a person must choose their body. Afterwards, they are taken on a “journey” to connect themselves with their new body and prepare for life. However, when someone becomes afraid of the struggles they may face after birth, they must learn what makes life worth living and gather the courage to face the unknown. 

Sunday, August 2

The Good Guys by Sarah Mantell
Presented in association with Philadelphia Theatre Company
 
Directed by Tyler Dobrowsky and Taibi Magar

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