NNPN Announces The Selected Plays And Finalists For The 2019 National Showcase Of New Plays

 

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays, is delighted to announce the slate of plays that will be shared during our 18th annual National Showcase of New Plays. NNPN and Core Member Theater Actor's Express with the assistance of members Horizon Theatre Company and Synchronicity Theatre will host the National Showcase of New Plays from December 6-8, 2019, presenting readings of six production-ready new plays to more than 150 NNPN Core and Associate Members, Affiliated Artists, and invited guests.

During two rounds of reading, over 60 adjudicators narrowed the pool of 69 submissions to 13 Finalists. From there, a committee of NNPN Artistic Leaders, Affiliated Artists, and Ambassadors selected the six plays that will be featured in Atlanta this December. They are:

A Great Migration by Preston Choi (nominated by Core Member Theater Silk Road Rising)

As Louise prepares for her TEDx Talk on the Migratory Patterns of the North American Monarch Butterfly, her three sons are on the hunt to find their father to avoid getting drafted into the Korean army. Part Nature Documentary/TED Talk/Road Trip/Memory Play, A Great Migration maps one family's search for identity, unity, and a destination they are reluctant to embrace.

Cave Canem by A. Emmanuel Leadon (nominated by Partner Organization PlayPenn)

On one of the darkest nights of his life, Jermichael cut off his lifelong friendship with his next-door neighbor. Two years later, the neighbor has adopted his nephew, a dog, and Jermichael has just been granted partial custody of his son, a human. The former best friends attempt to bottle their resentments before their collective rage takes complete control.

Predictor by Jennifer Blackmer (nominated by Core Member Theater Phoenix Theatre)

It's 1967, and twenty-six year-old Meg Crane, an imaginative, stubborn, recovering-Catholic graphic artist with a proclivity for seeing things differently, contemplates the decision to sell her patent for the first home pregnancy test to Organon Pharmaceuticals. Weighing the pros and cons of her choice takes her on a fantastic trip of both head and heart through an unconventional life, exploring her creative process and confronting the sexism and social mores of a bygone age that seem, sadly, all too current. Will Meg's invention fall into the wrong hands and disappear, or will she make the ultimate sacrifice to change the shape of women's lives forever? Based on true events.

Spay by Madison Fiedler (nominated by Associate Member Theater Rivendell Theatre Ensemble)

Noah has been a heroin addict as long as her son has been alive. And her sister, Harper, has had custody of that son as long as Noah's been an addict. When an organization shows up offering to sterilize addicts for pay, the sisters fight to determine who deserves to be a mother in a country hooked on pills. Madison Fielder's drama Spay is an unflinching look at addiction, Appalachia, and the families our system has failed.

The Promotion by Joe Giovannetti (nominated by Core Member Theater New Jersey Rep)

Trish and Josh have been coworkers at LifeOne Insurance Agency for seven years and they've been friends for about five. When they find out they're competing for the same promotion, their relationship implodes as they figure out what they want, and how badly they want it. A caustic dark comedy about race, class, gender, and upward mobility in the 21st century.

Up the Ladder, Down the Slide by David Valdes (Affiliated Artist)

Old friends Laurel, Karen, and Oscar meet for cocktails each week as a safe harbor when they find themselves caught in the crux of the "sandwich generation," parenting their own parents through cognitive and physical decline. Their bonds are tested by the unpredictable roller coaster of hope, anger, humor, shame, and an endless quest for one last good day.

The 2019 Finalists

Another Revolution by Jacqueline Bircher
(nominated by Associate Member Theater Centenary Stage Company)

Good Bad People by Rachel Lynett
(nominated by Core Member Theater Florida Studio Theatre)

Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids by Vincent Terrell Durham
(nominated by Partner Organization National Center for New Plays, Stanford University)

Siesta Key by Jonathan Spector
(nominated by Partner Organization Playwrights Foundation)

The Stories They Tell About the Gantry Girls by Stephen Spotswood
(Affiliated Artist)

What Are You Worth? by Kara Lee Corthron
(nominated by Core Member Theater Orlando Shakes)

Yellowstone by Jennifer Barclay
(Affiliated Artist)

Established in 2002, the National Showcase of New Plays is an annual three-day event that highlights unproduced plays from across the country. The Showcase creates a unique and invaluable opportunity for production-ready new plays to be viewed by NNPN's Core and Associate Members' artistic and literary leaders, as well as new play-makers and experts, invited from around the country.

More than 90% of the plays featured in Showcase has received a production within the next three seasons, many of them supported as NNPN Rolling World Premieres.