PlayPenn New Play Development Conference Announces 2018 Dates and Calls for Applicants

PlayPenn, the nationally-recognized new play development conference located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has announced dates for it's 2018 Conference, and will begin accepting applications for consideration starting onSeptember 1, 2017.

The 2018 conference will be held in Philadelphia, PA from July 10-29 at The Drake Theatre. Invited playwrights will have the opportunity to work with a director, dramaturg and Philadelphia-based professional actors over a 20-day period. The conference includes two public staged readings that are intended as a part of the process, giving playwrights an opportunity to measure the efficacy of the work accomplished and provide an opportunity to gauge the work ahead.

In 2017, over 800 writers applied for spots in the 13th annual new play development conference. Conference playwrights represent a range of cultural and career experience, which contributes to the creation of a dynamic and diverse community. The plays that will be developed at the conference are likely to find production at stages across the country, as has happened for 60% of PlayPenn's over 100 developed plays since 2005.

Beginning September 1, 2017, PlayPenn will be accepting applications for the 2018 conference and will require a full length, unproduced script for consideration. Application materials will be accepted between September 1 and September 30, 2017. Currently, PlayPenn is not considering musicals, plays for young audiences or one-person plays. Details on the application requirements can be found at playpenn.org.

ABOUT PLAYPENN: PlayPenn is a 13-year old artist-driven organization dedicated to the development of new plays and playwrights. PlayPenn fully supports the needs of the writer and the demands of the play in an ever-evolving process within which playwrights can engage in risk taking, boundary-pushing work. The organization's flagship annual new play development conference and year-round development workshops in cooperation with producing theatres result in staged readings of at least 10 new plays each year for over 1,800 artists, producers, and theatergoers. Additionally, PlayPenn's rapidly expanding educational programs-which include 17-20 in-person and online classes annually with notable instructors, application assistance, personalized dramaturgy services, plus The Foundry, a three-year membership group for emerging playwrights resident in Philadelphia-serve another 230+ playwrights from the region and across the nation. PlayPenn supports artists at all career stages across a broad spectrum of cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender experience. Since 2005, PlayPenn has helped to develop over 100 new plays from infancy to a state closer to production-readiness. Nearly 60% of these plays have gone on to more than 275 professional productions at esteemed institutions in the United States, Great Britain, and elsewhere around the world, including the London's National Theatre, National Theatre of Israel, English Theatre Berlin, Roundabout Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre, Atlantic Theatre, Second Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, LaJolla Playhouse, Denver Center Theatre, South Coast Repertory, and a host of theatres in the Philadelphia region, in cities across the country and around the world. In 2017, PlayPenn celebrated the first of its developed plays to hit a Broadway stage, and win a Tony Award-JT Rogers' Oslo at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Find out more at playpenn.org.

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