HISTORY

In 1998, a small group of theater leaders founded National New Play Network on the belief that the next generation of new play development should be decentralized, dynamic, and collaborative in scope and practice, and that there should be a pipeline for sharing new work between regional theaters. 

Founder David Goldman convened a group of artistic and managing leaders from organizations across the country that had demonstrated a commitment to the development and production of new plays, launching NNPN’s legacy of sharing the work of the artists they and their audiences admired.  The Network flourished and it began providing services for its Member Theaters through convenings and programmatic awards. This quickly gained the attention of the theater industry, and soon, the support of several major foundations and visionary philanthropists. Today more than 100 theaters of all sizes, in cities and towns across the nation are a part of the Network, and thousands of artists and audience members are impacted by its work annually.

ABOUT

NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN) is an alliance of professional theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays. Founded in 1998, NNPN continues to revolutionize the new play landscape through the strength of its member theaters, collaborative efforts, and its nationally recognized programs and services for artists and organizations.

NNPN boasts a diverse roster of Member Theaters through its two-tiered membership structure: Core Members, the governing network of theaters with annual budgets over $150,000 and missions that affirm a dedication to new works; and Associate Members, companies that produce or develop at least one new work per year and demonstrate a commitment to NNPN’s values.

NNPN is agile at its core and broad in its reach. As a robust collection of theaters working together across the nation, NNPN champions the indispensable nature of collaboration between theaters and theater-makers, and the vitality and cultural importance of new plays and living playwrights.

Over the past twenty years, NNPN has provided millions of dollars in funding to its Member Theaters, supported hundreds of productions nationwide through its innovative programming, helped launch and sustain the careers of thousands of artists, and reached hundreds of thousands of audience members around the world with plays that were created and honed with support from NNPN and its diverse consortium of theaters and artists.

STRATEGIC PLAN

NNPN has recently launched a new strategic plan that will help us and the field move towards “the robust, equitable new play ecosystem we envision.”

Read NNPN’s FY20-25 Strategic Plan’s Executive Summary here.

Read the January 2022 Impact Assessment Report of the Strategic Plan here.

Read the July 2022 Impact Assessment Report of the Strategic Plan here.

Read the January 2023 Impact Assessment Report of the Strategic Plan here.

Read the May 2024 Impact Assessment Report of the Strategic Plan here.

Anti-Racism and Anti-Bias Plan and Commitment to Action

National New Play Network commits to fostering and supporting work that dismantles the structures of systemic racism that are endemic in the new play field and the theater industry at large. NNPN believes that bold action and public accountability are vital to creating a diverse and equitable new play ecosystem that will best support all artists and audiences, and will honor, celebrate, and lift up the work of theater-makers regardless of their race or ethnicity, specifically, including but not limited to artists who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, Latina/o/x, Asian, Middle Eastern, and all People of Color. Additionally, NNPN commits to fostering and supporting work that dismantles bias based on designations that contribute to the marginalization of groups of people, including but not limited to gender, gender identity, culture, religion, language, sexual orientation, age, neurodiversity and/or disability, and/or economic class.

Read NNPN’s Anti-Racist/Anti-Bias Plan here.