The Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival Announces New Leadership And Call For 2026-27 Submissions

The Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival at the Dobbins Conservatory of Southeast Missouri State University has new leadership: Co-Artistic Directors Charles Goforth and Tim Nicolai and Managing Director Lisa Fischel. Kenneth L. Stilson returns in the capacity of Founding Executive Director. Former Artistic Director Kitt Lavoie departs after shepherding the festival from an idea to five successful seasons and a national profile.

The 2026 festival will open its call for submissions for full-length and short plays on September 15. It will run May 17-23, 2026.

By developing and championing new American plays for conservatory and professional stages, the festival nurtures playwrights and provides exciting new roles for young actors. The Festival develops five full-length and ten short plays each year on SEMO's River Campus in Cape Girardeau, culminating in staged readings for artists and audiences. One full-length play and an evening of short play selections receive world premieres in the subsequent Dobbins Conservatory season. The full-length winner receives consideration for publication by Concord Theatricals.

The 2025 festival winner is Six Inches Above the Knee, by Sally Seitz; the play will receive its premiere in February of 2026. Seitz has been commissioned through 20th Television's Emerging Playwrights program to develop Six Inches into a pilot for series development.

"We couldn't be more thrilled to add a leadership team of this caliber to the Festival," said Stilson. "Charles, Tim and Lisa have a phenomenal breadth of theatrical wisdom, with numerous decades of new work experience. Their ideas and insight already have us incredibly excited for the Festival's evolution this coming year."

As a member of New York's LAByrinth Theater Company, Charles has helped to develop dozens of new plays through mainstage productions, workshops, and readings. He directed several premieres by Stephen Adly Guirgis starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Liza Colón-Zayas, David Zayas, John Ortiz, Ron Cephas Jones and other LAB actors. In addition to years of directing Off-Broadway, he has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, taught privately in NYC and directed and taught at NYU/Tisch, Shenandoah Conservatory, AMDA, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

"It's so great," said Goforth, "to lead a festival that supports playwrights and invites young actors to collaborate on developing and staging their new plays. Along with Tim Nicolai, serving as co-artistic director allows me to work in to cherished capacities: collaborating with playwrights on premieres of new work, and mounting productions that are also a top-flight learning opportunity for young actors."

Nicolai co-founded NYC Joint Stock theatre collective SOCIETY with playwright Mona Mansour and director Scott Illingworth. Prior to SOCIETY, Nicolai's credits included The Glass Menagerie on Broadway, Plenty at The Public Theater with Rachel Weisz and Corey Stoll, Free Shakespeare in the Park and Shakespeare Theatre Company's Hamlet with Emmy nominee Michael Urie. In 2023 he joined the Dobbins Conservatory faculty at SEMO, returning to his undergraduate home.

"Elevating playwrights is something we're very proud of here, and it's an ethos this team deeply believes in," said Nicolai. "We want guest artists to feel important and integral, and our students embrace that completely. The Conservatory is one of the top theatre programs in the nation, and it's a blast seeing these working professionals collaborate with our future professionals."

Fischel brings experience in devised and immersive theatre, with roots in Shakespeare and the classics. She joined Philadelphia's experimental scene with In the Terminus at the Fringe Festival and has worked with Theatre Horizon, ReVamp Collective, and The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre. Her recent focus includes directing and intimacy choreography, collaborating with industry leaders like Greg Geffrard and Laura Rikard. A certified Voice & Movement specialist, she trained at UNLV, USM, and LAMDA. Fischel teaches nationally and serves with ATME and the Association of Theatre in Higher Education

"What excites me most about the festival is established and emerging playwrights working side by side with the next generation of theatre artists," Fischel expressed. "It's inspiring to watch these collaborations spark fresh ideas and empower young artists to plant seeds and generate the future of American theatre."

The Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival is the only program in the United States dedicated to developing new plays that create substantial opportunities for college-aged performers, producing five full-length and ten short works annually.

The festival will open for submissions Monday, September 15 at 10am CST; submission guidelines and portal can be found here.