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Padraic Lillis

The festival is wonderful because everyone involved is invested in the success of the plays . . . . It was a gift to be part of this incredibly supportive community for the week.

Padraic Lillis

John W. Lowell

The festival was rewarding in too many ways for me to recount . . . . Hearing my work, as well as the work of my colleagues, in the presence of a sharp, perceptive, kind audience was more than most playwrights could hope to expect

John W. Lowell

Michael McKeever

Festivals like this are the lifeblood of a playwright. Getting the chance to present a work in this early stage is a gift. I am enormously grateful to the PBD family for giving me the opportunity to develop The People Downstairs with such hard-working professionals and to present it in front of such an astute, engaged audience.

Michael McKeever

History of New Play Development

 

The Dramaworkshop Logo  Perlberg Festival Logo

In 2014, PBD introduced The Dramaworkshop, a lab for developing new plays. Playwrights were invited to submit their evolving scripts for consideration for further development, including read-throughs, workshops, developmental productions, and fully produced world premieres. In 2016, we mounted our first developmental production in the Perlberg Studio Theatre, Buried Cities by Jennifer Fawcett, followed the next year by Jennifer Faletto’s Domestic Animals. The Dramaworkshop was also involved in the development of two PBD world premieres: Edgar & Emily by Joseph McDonough in the 2017-18 season and House on Fire by Lyle Kessler in 2018-19.

In January, 2019 The Dramaworkshop launched the New Year/New Plays Festival, featuring readings on our stage of five evolving plays. It was an instant success with playwrights and audiences, and The Dramaworkshop gradually began focusing its efforts almost exclusively on this popular annual event. Most of the plays that have received their world premieres at PBD since 2019 were initially presented at the festival, and each year it was becoming clearer that The Dramaworkshop and the New Year/New Plays Festival were one and the same. Prior to the start of the 2023-24 season, the festival was renamed in honor of its generous executive producers, Diane and Mark Perlberg, and at the end of the season, we retired The Dramaworkshop. We want to thank Bruce Linser, the former manager of The Dramaworkshop, for his steady guidance in helping bring us to this inflection point, and Jenny Connell Davis, PBD’s literary manager, for picking up the reins and taking the festival into the future. And we want to express our profound gratitude to the eight founding producers of The Dramaworkshop; without their unstinting support for and belief in PBD’s efforts to nurture new American plays, there would not be a Perlberg Festival of New Plays today.

THE DRAMAWORKSHOP FOUNDING PRODUCERS

  • The Alper Family Foundation
  • Penny Bank
  • Susan Bloom
  • Calla & Ralph Guild
  • Marilyn Meyerhoff & Sam Feldman
  • Nancy & Jay Parker
  • The Roe Green Foundation
  • Lee Wolf

THE PERLBERG FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS, YEAR BY YEAR

2019

  • The Captives by Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich
  • Drift by William Francis Hoffman
  • With by Carter W. Lewis
  • Ordinary Americans by Joseph McDonough*
  • Red, White, Black and Blue by Michael McKeever.

*Ordinary Americans was commissioned by PBD. The remaining plays were chosen from among some 300 submissions.

2020

  • The Hat Box by Eric Coble
  • As I See It by Jenny Connell Davis
  • Remember Me When You Come Into Your Kingdom by Padraic Lillis
  • The Standby Lear by John W. Lowell
  • The People Downstairs by Michael McKeever*

*The People Downstairs was commissioned by PBD.

2021

  • Charlottesville by Catherine Bush
  • The Surest Poison by Kristin Idaszak
  • Dorothy’s Dictionary by E.M. Lewis
  • Twenty-Two by Erin K. Considine
  • The Prey by Gina Montet

Due to the pandemic, the 2021 festival took place online. It attracted audiences from across the country, and some from overseas.

2022

  • The Science of Leaving Omaha by Carter W. Lewis*
  • Dark Skinned Pavement by TJ Young
  • Past Midnight: A Visit with Larry and Viv by Donna Hoke
  • The Chisera by Paula Cizmar
  • how it feels to fall from the sky by Dominic Finocchiaro.

*World premiere at PBD in 2022-23. Out of an abundance of caution, the festival again took place online.

2023

  • Crossing Ebenezer Creek by Bill Cain
  • The Islanders by Carey Crim
  • The Messenger by Jenny Connell Davis*
  • The Virgin Queen Entertains Her Fool by Michael Hollinger
  • Dangerous Instruments by Gina Montet **

*Commissioned by PBD and had its world premiere in 2023-24.

**World premiere scheduled for 2024-25 season.

2024

  • Little Row Boat by Kirsten Greenidge
  • Everything Beautiful Happens at Night by Ted Malawer
  • Proximity by Harrison David Rivers
  • Stockade by Andrew Rosendorf
  • Color Blind by Oren Safdie

The first two days of the festival featured interviews with actress Estelle Parsons and playwright Mark St. Germain. You can find the Parsons interview by clicking here, and the St. Germain interview by clicking here.