Announcing the 2020 MFA Playwrights' Workshop

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of professional theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays, together with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University’s National Center for New Plays is delighted to announce the playwrights selected for the 2020 MFA Playwrights' Workshop and Undergraduate Playwrights' Workshop.

"While the pandemic may have put productions on pause, technology is allowing theater-makers across and beyond the Network to come together to dig into the work of these ten thrilling playwrights," said NNPN Executive Director Nan Barnett. "We are grateful for this opportunity to support these new plays as they get ready to meet audiences in person when it's again safe to convene. And in the meantime, we are continuing to find ways to work and connect with one another across distances."

Now in its fifteenth year, this annual program pairs gifted early-career playwrights with directors and dramaturgs from a wide circle of theaters around North America, along with a professional acting company. The Workshop also features the ninth annual New Play Dramaturgy Intensive, led by Mark Bly, who serves as an Ambassador at Large for the Network.

Members of the sixth cohort of the National Directors Fellowship are serving as Associate Directors on four of the ten projects and (virtually) building professional relationships with representatives from NNPN Member Theaters as well as professionals from the larger American theater community. This program is a partnership of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, National New Play Network, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, and KCACTF.

See the full release here.