PlayPenn will be developing a total of seven new plays for the 2025 New Play Development Conference.
Below are the breakdowns for each reading.
The character breakdowns are detailed in the submission forms.
Resident Playwright Readings.
Dates: July 8th - 20th, 2025.
Hours: 25 hours of rehearsal and 2 public readings scheduled over two weeks.
This year's Resident Playwright selections are:
Ama. Egg. Oyá. by Lori Felipe-Barkin
Ama. Egg.Oyá. blends Santería, modern-day Miami, and Cuban rhythms in a powerful exploration of infertility, motherhood, and the fierce determination to have a child.
Hand Foot Hand by L M Feldman
Hand Foot Hand is an intimate and raw portrait of three aging aerialists navigating love, loss, and the uncertainty of mid-career artistry when their bodies and futures are no longer defined by their past feats.
Harlem Canary/Tokyo Crow by Andrew Saito
Harlem Canary/ Tokyo Crow is a satirical comedy about WWII’s “Negro Propaganda Operations,” in which captured African American POWs were forced to record radio plays contrasting Japan’s supposed racial freedoms with the brutal realities of racism in the U.S.
Foundry's First Spark Reading Series and Philadelphia Young Playwright Reading.
Dates: June 30th - July 7th, 2025.
Hours: 14 hours of rehearsal and 1 public reading scheduled over one week. These readings will be cast with non-AEA actors only.
This year's First Spark and PYP selections are:
I'll Eat You Whole by Chaz T. Martin
Bestselling author Caro X. Wilson returns to her alma mater to discuss her hit debut novel—only to face the woman who inspired it, furious and uninvited. As tensions rise in Caro’s hotel room, the two confront the past they share and the reckoning it demands.
Talking To Og, Or How Dora Mack Staved Off The Apocalypse With A Poem by Zahra Patterson
Talking to Og is a political farce about activists fighting to shut down an anti-empathy factory. When protester Dora Mack is arrested, they strike a deal with the resistance and become key to the movement—all with help from their pet iguana and two trusty thumbs.
The Company by Lex Thammavong
In City X, a biotech giant threatens to consume homes, businesses, and lives. When it targets the last indie bookstore, activist Ash must rally their neighbors to fight back before it’s too late.
Field of Flowers by Bee Kanofsky
A compelling fictional retelling of the complex relationship between Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.
For NON-AEA actors, please fill out our SUBMISSION FORM LINKED HERE.
For AEA actors, please fill out our AEA SUBMISSION FORM LINKED HERE
The form will ask you to include a headshot, resume, and one contemporary monologue. You may add a contrasting monologue if you wish.
Submissions will be open until April 10.
Callbacks and casting will begin in mid-April.
