NY Play Development
Where new American plays are born.
site updated 26 March, 2005 ||| you are visitor

NY Play Development is a play development lab run by and for playwrights and actors. It's no longer accepting new scripts, but take heart! The people behind NYPD have morphed the organization into a vital, exciting new theatre designed to premiere the work of playwrights and to foster the development of new plays by the hottest voices writing for theatre today and tomorrow: Sanctuary Playwrights Theatre.

Playwrights theatre? Someone must pay for this!
(Donate now to Sanctuary: Playwrights Theatre.)

Upcoming Projects

Sanctuary: Playwrights Theatre First Season

Season to be announced Fall 2004 - watch this space!

NY Play Development workshop:
Twinges
written and directed by Bob Jude Ferrante
August 15th - Sept 8th 2002
at Shooting Star Theatre
Directed by Bob  Jude Ferrante
Featuring Gary Trahan, Larry Rothman, and Colleen DeSalvo. 
[Read the rave review in BackStage]
[Read the review in OOBR]

NY Play Development's workshop
Sensation
by Philip Hopkins 
August 15th - 18th 2002
at Trilogy Theatre (part of Feed the Herd's Stampede of New Works).

Philip Hopkins' play Sensation was a sensation at The Dramatists Guild June 2002. The NY Play Development-sponsored reading played in the heart of NYC's theatre district played to a full house — and the atmosphere was pure electricity.

Hear about 4Play [click to see the press stuff]

4Play was NY Play Development’s very first festival of New American Plays at the Philip Bosakowski Theatre, 354 West 45th Street,  NYC; running September 21 - October 8, 2000. 4Play showcased premieres of three new full-length plays & one short—just four of the over one hundred plays developed in NY Play Development’s lab. And—we’re warning you now—we did it in 2000, and we'll do it again in 2001...

Visit the NY Play Development bookstore, in cooperation with Amazon.com. Buy a great theatre title (or two, or three) at Amazon’s discounted price—and Amazon’s associates program contributes 5 percent of your purchase to NY Play Development. So you get new books for less (usually!) and that generates money that helps develop and foster new American plays.

NY Play Development’s core mission

(1) Helps theatres find strong playwrights in “twelve ways”
(2) Exposes audiences and potential producers to new, cutting-edge plays. 

To get there, we serve and support our member playwrights as they make new stage works.  NY Play Development membership provides:: 

• A playwright-run script lab with lots of working actors in attendance
• A public reading forum where theatres can see member-written  plays in front of a real audience at a Theatre Row theatre
• Ongoing development support for all works
• A supportive environment to foster and support the playwright’s process
• Bundled script placement and promotional services

Our lab program is designed from the ground up to provide the playwright with all the tools needed to develop and perfect the classic long-form stage work—the 2-act play.

Activities 1997-present

NY Play Development’s homegrown reading series

In the five years since its inception, NY Play Development has been proud to present these member-written plays in public readings in venues all over our incredible hometown—NYC.

Member plays presented by independent theatres

These plays, developed in full or in part in NY Play Development’s lab, have seen production or public reading by to date: