Eboni Booth, Roger Q. Mason and More to Headline PlayPenn's 2026 New Play Development Conference

PlayPenn, a Philadelphia-based artist-driven organization dedicated to the long-term development of new plays and playwrights, will transform new play development into a laboratory for civic imagination through their 2026 New Play Development Conference: "Democracy in Action" running July 17-August 2 at various venues in Philadelphia and New York City.

PlayPenn's nationally recognized New Play Development Conference brings together readings of new plays alongside a citywide series of civic gatherings, workshops, artist exchanges, and public conversations focusing on 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. Registration opens Monday, June 1 at www.playpenn.org/2026-conference.

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 (Lavender Men with Skylight Theatre), PlayPenn Foundry alum and Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner Sarah Mantell (In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot with Playwrights Horizons), and newcomer Zoe Palmer.

The 18-event Conference brings together 22 playwrights participating across workshops, conversations, and five 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, teens, and 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.

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), Danilo Gambini (CATS: The Jellicle Ball), L M Feldman (Another Kind of Silence), Nick Jonczak (Trinity), James Kern (The Contrast), Taibi Magar (Wonder, Night Side Songs) Amrita Ramanan (The Waterfall), Rayne (COMET), Charlie Thurston (Liberation), Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters (Esther Choi and the Fish that Drowned) and partnerships with Cannonball Festival, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Philadelphia Young Playwrights.
 

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.

Saturday, July 18

Living Out Loud: Writing Radical Futures with Roger Q. Mason

A half-day creative gathering of writing, discussion, and visioning, culminating in a sharing of short pieces that imagine radical futures for America.

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, Nick Jonczak, 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

Emergence by Zoe Palmer

Presented in association with Philadelphia Young Playwrights (PYP)

Directed by James Kern

Dramaturgy by Madeline Charne

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 & Taibi Magar

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