PlayPenn is a new play development conference located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Paul Meshejian is the artistic director of the organization, which works with playwrights to develop new plays in a collaborative workshop environment.
Since PlayPenn's first conference in 2005, the organization has been hosting annual July conferences in Philadelphia, where invited playwrights work with actors, directors, dramaturgs and designers to rehearse, revise and develop their new scripts in workshops. The conference includes free public readings of the plays, as well as forums and symposia.
PlayPenn has helped develop 100 new plays, most of which have become full productions at theater companies in the United States and abroad. Playwrights who have workshopped scripts at PlayPenn include Jeffrey Hatcher, Deb Margolin, Aaron Posner, Michael Hollinger, J.T. Rogers and Lauren Yee. PlayPenn also offers classes and workshops during other months of the year, as well as consultations and support for playwrights from dramaturgs and editors.
Paul Meshejian, an actor and director, created PlayPenn in 2005 after working at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. Michele Volansky has been his artistic partner since the beginning as associate artist and dramaturg. Meshejian said he wanted to create an encouraging space for writers, he told Jessica Foley of American Theatre (magazine) in 2015. "We'll feed you, provide lodging, so you ... can just write your play."
While PlayPenn's main goal is to nurture new plays, not necessarily to lead them to productions, PlayPenn scripts have become full productions at many Philadelphia theaters, as well as at other theaters around the country.
In 2014, PlayPenn began entering into partnerships with theater companies to help guide plays through the last phases of development before a formal production. The organization began by pairing with the Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey to shepherd the play The House That Jack Built by Suzanne Bradbeer.
For the 2017 PlayPenn conference, over 800 playwrights applied and six were chosen for workshops and free public readings. The conference also includes readings of up to three theatrical works in progress, along with forums and a symposium where participants discuss issues related to new-play development.
Playwrights and plays
Plays developed by PlayPenn, 2005-2016
2016
Another Kind of Silence by Lauren Feldman
Flat Sam by Antoinette Nwandu
Heartland by Gabriel Jason Dean
Heavenly Cosmic by Meghan Kennedy
Poor Edward by Jonathan Payne
The Found Dog Ribbon Dance by Dominic Finocchiaro
Sensitive Guys by MJ Kaufman
Suicide Jockey by Lena Barnard
2015
Giantess by Genne Murphy
Human Error by Eric Pfeffinger
Oslo by J.T. Rogers
Prince Max’s Trewly Awful Trip to the Desolat Interior by Ellen Struve
White by James Ijames
Widower by David J. Jacobi
War Stories by Richard Dresser
r/LYPSE: a subreddit of our dark lips and heart by Brian Grace-Duff
Shitheads by Douglas Williams
2014
The Dizzy Little Dance of Russell DiFinaldi by Stephen Belber
A Scar by Anne Marie Cammarato
Behind the Motel by Emily Schwend
Wild Blue by Jen Silverman
Cattle Barn, Hoochie Coo by Davey Strattan White
Mr. Wheeler’s by Rob Zellers
Moon Cave by Douglas Williams
Honor Flight by Willy Holtzman
The House That Jack Built by Suzanne Bradbeer
2013
The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington by James Ijames
Cockfight by Peter Gil-Sheridan
Informed Consent by Deborah Zoe Laufer
No Such Thing by Lisa Dillman
Profiles by Joe Waechter
Terminus by Gabriel Jason Dean
Uncanny Valley by Thomas Gibbons
The First Mrs. Rochester by Willy Holtzman
2012
A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World by Liz Duffy Adams
G.O.B. by Willy Holtzman
Too Much, Too Much, Too Many by Meghan Kennedy
Household Spirits by Mia McCullough
My Tidy List of Terrors by Jonathan James Norton
Seven Spots of the Sun by Martin Zimmerman
The Three Christs of Manhattan by Seth Rozin
Barcelona by Bess Wohl
2011
The Hatmaker’s Wife by Lauren Yee
American Wee-Pie by Lisa Dillman
Another Girl by John Yearley
Nerine by Brian Quirk
Slip/Shot by Jacqueline Goldfinger
The Electric Baby by Stefanie Zadravec
Chasing Waves by Quinn Eli
At the Edge of a Promised Land by Jesse Bernstein
2010
Clementine in the Lower Nine by Dan Dietz
Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night by Kara Lee Corthron
Hum by Nicholas Wardigo
Love and Communication by James J. Christy
Raising Jo by Charlotte Miller
The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter
Imagining Madoff by Deb Margolin
The Outgoing Tide by Bruce Graham
Cowboy/Indian by Matt Ocks
Some Other Kind of Person by Eric Pfeffinger
2009
410 Gone by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
Appetite by Arden Kass
Blood and Gifts by J.T. Rogers
Ghost-Writer by Michael Hollinger
The Specificity of Paradise by John Orlock
We Three by Mary Hamilton
The Morini Strad by Willy Holtzman
Two Jews Walk Into a War by Seth Rozin
2008
Another Man’s Son by Silva Semerciyan
Breadcrumbs by Jennifer Haley
A Human Equation by Peter Bonilla
House of Gold by Gregory Moss
Saving Grace (now entitled Salvation) by James McClindon
Wildflower by Lila Rose Kaplan
Dear Brutus by Jeffrey Hatcher
Any Given Monday by Bruce Graham
The Beef by Katie Grey
2007
The Rant by Andrew Case
The Day of the Picnic by Russell Davis
After Adam by Christina Ham
Militant Language by Sean Christopher Lewis
There or Here by Jennifer Maisel
My Name is Asher Lev by Aaron Posner
Carlo vs. Carlo by Aaron Cromie
Bubu the Terrible by Rick DesRochers
2006
A Scream by Gina Barnett
Bad for the Jews by Peter Morris
Malignancy by Eric Pfeffinger
Scarcity by Lucy Thurber
2005
We Are Not These Hands by Sheila Callaghan
Act a Lady by Jordan Harrison
The Overwhelming by J.T. Rogers
On Clarion by Lydia Stryk
