PlayPenn New Play Development Conference to Offer 19 Free Public Events in Philadelphia

Before they reach Broadway, earn Pulitzer Prizes and Tony Awards, or appear on stages across the country, many new plays are first brought to life at PlayPenn. From July 17 through August 2, Philadelphia audiences are invited inside that creative process as PlayPenn presents its 2026 New Play Development Conference, offering 19 free public events that showcase new works, acclaimed playwrights, hands-on workshops, and conversations exploring the role of theatre in civic life. For more than 20 years, PlayPenn has helped develop more than 160 new plays that have gone on to receive more than 400 productions throughout the United States and abroad. During the 2025-2026 theatrical season, plays by PlayPenn playwrights Jordan Harrison (Marjorie Prime), Samuel D. Hunter (Little Bear Ridge Road), and Bess Wohl (Liberation) were produced on Broadway.

Now is your chance to see tomorrow's award-winning plays before anyone else. 

This year's conference gives audiences the rare opportunity to experience new work while it is still taking shape, alongside the artists bringing it to life. Timed for the nation's 250th anniversary, the conference explores democracy, belonging, constitutional history, and collective imagination through six new play presentations, workshops, artist exchanges, and public conversations.

Serving as the centerpiece of the conference are three 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 17-year-old playwright Zoe Palmer, the youngest artist featured in this year's conference.

PlayPenn will also feature more than 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.

“Roger, Sarah, and Zoe's plays wrestle with urgent questions about where we belong and what we owe one another. They're giving us an opportunity for collective dreaming, and that's exactly what new play development should do – bring everyone together to build new dreams inspired by the courage of our nation's playwrights.”

Conference Highlights

• Six public readings of new plays by Roger Q. Mason, Sarah Mantell, Zoe Palmer, and more.
• PlayPenn Presents Eboni Booth Live, an intimate conversation with the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Primary Trust.
• Free playwriting workshops for adults and teens, plus a writing workshop for women over 50.
• Community conversations and artist exchanges exploring constitutional history, belonging, innovation in theatre-making, and the future of American theatre.

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