A New Showcase of New Plays
For National New Play Network, the National Showcase of New Plays is a tentpole convening, a gathering of Member Theaters around the country and presentations of excellent new plays. Not only was the 2024 National Showcase of New Plays NNPN’s first foray into gathering in New York and the celebration of NNPN’s twenty-five years of impact on the new play field, it was also an opportunity for the event to be reinvigorated around newly clarified goals. After a hiatus in 2023 and a suite of recommended changes proposed by an intensive evaluation process, NNPN set out to produce a 2024 National Showcase of New Plays that would offer wide array of artistic work in a variety of formats while also centering connectivity and community among attendees.
NNPN Board Members. Photo by Sara Reilly. Top row from left to right: Reginald Douglas, Leslie Ishii, Kristen Vehill, Jenni Werner, Aimee Hayes, Olivia Lilley, Clare Drobot, Milta Ortiz, Cynthia White, José González, Rudy Ramirez, Marguerite Hannah, Catherine Painter, DeLanna Studi. Bottom row from left to right: Lyndsay Burch, Raymond Bobgan, Maria Patrice Amon, Liz Engelmen, Roberta Emerson. Not pictured: Catherine Randazzo, Sonia Fernandez, Jeannene Bragg, Kim Montelibano Heil, and Lavina Jadhwani.
On the artistic side, the process began with the call for plays. NNPN invites its Member Theater and Partner Organizations to each nominate a play; Affiliated Artists who are alumni of select NNPN programs are also invited to share their own work. In spite of a newly multi-layered nomination and submission process (aimed at ensuring that both nominators and playwrights understood the process ahead), NNPN received a record-breaking number of scripts. After several rounds of adjudication, in which each play was read multiple times, 17 finalists were identified, less than 15% of the initial pool. Throughout the process, readers were asked to reflect both on the play’s emotional impact and suitability for the Showcase opportunity. One more round of evaluations, and then we had our Showcase selections: four plays to get full readings, and three more playwrights to be featured in our new sharing format (more on that below).
But, before April was upon us, the finalists whose work was not selected for Showcase deserved celebration too. On March 28, Member Theaters and other NNPN’ers gathered virtually for a Playwrights Slam that featured excerpts of the Finalist plays straight from the source.
On April 19, when the Showcase weekend itself finally arrived, the first new plays attendees encountered were not those selected by NNPN’s panel, but rather those touted by the attendees themselves– in the form of a Pitch Session. After a welcome and brief orientation, activities formally kicked off with this classic love-to-hate-it event in which attendees introduce themselves and amplify plays that they love. This year, a little extra structure kept the event focused and fun, with attendees getting “played off” (to classic NYC-specific tunes) if their pitches ran long. In the end, approximately 80 new plays were pitched over the course of the session – some well on their way to rolling world premieres, some without any productions attached, some already produced and looking for second, third, and fourth productions.
Scenes from readings and sharings from Showcase Weekend. Photos by Terry Li.
A new offering this year was the “Showcase Sharing” model. These 45-minute sessions aimed to introduce a playwright and their voice to the Network, rather than a specific play. The playwrights selected for Sharings – David Davila, AZ Espinoza, and Minita Gandhi, were each invited to select excerpts from their work that they felt represented their voices and bodies of work. The aim was to encourage audience members to read more, to follow up, and to pursue collaborations with these writers in a variety of manners. The Sharings not only provided a new way of encountering Showcase work – they also allowed for more of it, since, being shorter than a full-length play, time in the schedule could be reallocated to more plays and more connectivity activities.
And then, of course, there were the four full readings. Close to Home by Sharifa Yasmin, fire work by Mary Glen Fredrick, The World to Come by Ali Viterbi, and Bad Books by Sharyn Rothstein were each read in their entirety and lightly staged at music stands. These readings represented a wide range of themes, styles, and tone; they also represented a variety of sources: one was nominated by an NNPN Associate Member Theater, one was nominated by an NNPN Partner Organization, and two were submitted by Affiliated Artists.
The plays – both Sharings and Readings – were enthusiastically received, with playwrights (and NNPN staff) receiving requests for follow-up. Attendees left Showcase with a stack of scripts to read on the plane, share with their colleagues, and dream about seeing. If you too would like to check them out, many of the Showcase plays and finalists can be found on the New Play Exchange.
The 2024 National Showcase of New Plays may be over, but the collaborations and projects that were seeded there are only just beginning.