Steamboat Magazine - Behind the Curtain of Colorado New Play Festival

by Haley Watkins

It’s a gathering of some of the most promising voices in American theater – a laboratory for stories not yet told, and a launching pad for plays that may one day take Broadway by storm.

For nearly three decades, the Colorado New Play Festival (CNPF) has carved out a space in the national arts landscape – and its impact has been quietly powerful.

Unlike many new play festivals that source material directly from playwright submissions, CNPF works differently.

“We receive submissions from theater companies, not just playwrights,” says Colt Neidhardt, who is the executive director of the Colorado New Play Festival. “Those companies have already committed to developing the proposed work. That partnership is crucial – it means almost every play we help develop goes on to a production.”

That model has proved not only sustainable but wildly successful. Since its inception as a program at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School & Camp 27 years ago, and especially since becoming an independent entity eight years ago, CNPF has supported the development of over 100 new works. “Purpose,” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and produced by Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago, Illinois – a  2019 participant – recently opened on Broadway and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and was nominated for six Tony awards including Best New Play.

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