The Annual New Play Festival (NPF) features new works, which have not been professionally produced or published, by University of Colorado Boulder undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff, and recent alums. There are four categories: Full Length, 1 Acts, 10 Minute plays, and Performance Scenarios. All selected works receive staged readings and are offered a feedback session during the festival. The “winner” of the NPF becomes incorporated into the Department of Theatre & Dance's next season as a full production!
7th Annual New Play Festival
This Year's Lineup starts Tuesday, April 26th through Thursday, April 28th at 7:30PM in the Acting Studio.
**Tickets are Free, and will be first come first serve at the door. We hope to see you there!
Feel free to submit to as many of the calls outlined below as you want, but we will be restricting playwrights to one accepted submission this year. Please submit PDF documents only. We will began accepting new plays in the Fall semester of 2022! Only one full-length or one-act, one 10-minute play, and one performance scenario submission per person. Send any questions to cubouldernpf@gmail.com.
Submissions & Eligibility
All CU Boulder undergraduate or graduate students, faculty, staff, or alums are eligible to submit work to the New Play Festival. Submissions must be turned in by the deadline; no late work may be accepted.
Please submit PDF documents only. Scripts need to be turned in with no identifying information about the playwright, except for a mandatory cover page containing the playwright’s name, contact information, and title of the script. Plays will be reviewed by at least 2 readers blindly and chosen by a selection committee. If a play was submitted for a past festival but not chosen, it must be substantially rewritten to be eligible for resubmission.
Full-Length Plays: Full-length plays must be of substantial length (normally somewhere between 60-120 pages in standard manuscript form), and must not have been previously professionally produced or published. Accepted plays may be developed by the playwright in collaboration with the director and actors over 8-10 rehearsal hours.
One-Act Plays: One-act plays must be somewhere between 11-60 pages in standard form, and not have been previously produced professionally or published. Accepted plays may be developed by the playwright in collaboration with the director and actors over 6-8 rehearsal hours.
10-Minute Plays: 10-minute plays must be around 10 minutes in length (normally around 10 pages in manuscript form), and not have been previously professionally produced or published. Accepted plays may be developed by the playwright in collaboration with the director and actors over 4-6 rehearsal hours.
Performance Scenarios: Recognizing that not all theatrical events are text-based, we accept performance scenarios for site-specific work (particularly interesting to explore during these Zoom days), an immersive work, a spec-actor scheme, etc. that is organized around design, an experience, an event, rather than starting with text. The 5-10-minute presentation of the performance concept can be in any form.
Directors and Actors: We need you all! More information to come in the New Year!
Frequently Asked Questions
Stay Connected
If you'd like to receive updates about upcoming festivals, please email cubouldernpf@gmail.com or follow our Facebook page @CUBoulderNPF.