SUBMISSION FOR THE 2012 NEW PLAY FESTIVAL IS CLOSED

For Playwrights:  Play Submission Guidelines and Process

We congratulate 2011 New Play Festival Winner Steve Totland for "You Are Here!"

It's quite clear Centre Stage is doing remarkable work in Greenville; building an artistic relationship that brings real value to the community.  I feel quite honored to have my story on your stage, and very blessed to have been chosen from such a strong field of plays.

Be happy and well,

Steven Totland,
You Are Here, playwright

2012 New Play Festival Oct.3-6, 2012

In the fall of each year, Centre Stage is proud to present its New Play Festival. This free and open to the public event gives Greenville audiences the opportunity to hear three exciting new plays, in concert reading format.

Three finalists are selected from over 200 submitted plays. Each reading will be followed by an in-depth discussion of the work, led by Festival Literary Manager, Dr. Brian Haimbach and our guest playwright-in-residence.  

On the fourth evening of the Festival, audiences will have an opportunity to engage in an informal discussion with the playwright-in-residence before hearing a reading of their latest play in development. Sponsored by:

This production is made possible, in part, with support from the Dramatists Guild Fund.  The mission of the Dramatists Guild Fund is to aid and nurture writers for the theater; to fund non-profit theaters producing contemporary American works; and to heighten awareness, appreciation, and support of theater across the country. www.dgfund.org .

2011 Playwright-in-Residence

Arlene Hutton is best known as the author of The Nibroc Trilogy, which includes Last Train To Nibroc (New York Drama League Best Play nomination), See Rock City (In the Spirit of America Award) and Gulf View Drive (LA Weekly and Ovation Award nominations). Regional credits include Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, B Street Theatre, Kitchen Theatre, Echo Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre and Chester Theatre. Her plays have been presented four times at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Off- and Off-Off-Broadway and at theatres across the US, in London and throughout the world. 
 
Last season her new play Running was a hit at the New York Fringe Festival and her play for family audiences, Happy Worst Day Ever, commissioned by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and directed by Mark Lutwak, was winner of the Macy’s New Play Prize. Three Graces Theatre Company  are presenting the tenth anniversary production of As it is in Heaven at the Cherry Lane Studio in the summer of 2011. Other works include I Dream Before I Take the Stand, Letters to Sala, Vacuum, Parhelia and a new commission from Shotgun Productions, Band of Sisters, about women in the military.
 
An alumna of New Dramatists, Hutton is a member of Dramatists Guild, six-time Actors' Theatre of Louisville 10-Minute Play Contest finalist, three-time winner of the Samuel French Short Play Festival, finalist for the Francesca Primus Prize and recipient of the Lippman and Calloway Awards. Residencies include the Australian National Playwrights Conference, New Harmony Project, Blue Mountain Center, MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. 
 
Hutton has been a William Inge Fellow in Kansas, resident playwright for Greenville Centre Stage’s New Play Festival, a Flornoy Festival honoree and twice named the Tennessee Williams Fellow in Playwriting at the University of the South. In addition to the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, she has been on the faculty of the Glen Workshop and the Sewanee Writers Conference, taught workshops for the Northwest Playwrights Alliance and Austin Scriptworks. Her scripts are published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French and Playscripts and appear in numerous anthologies. 
 
Born and raised in the South, Hutton divides her time between New York City and South Carolina, where she is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Playwriting at the College of Charleston.

Previous Festivals

"The New Play Festival is a rare and valuable opportunity for young playwrights to find their plays and their audiences at one and the same time.  My experience at Centre Stage was crucial in the development of my own script.  In this festival, Centre Stage brings one of the most important elements of contemporary play development to the region."
Lee Blessing, NPF Playwright-in-Residence 2007

The winner of the 2009 New Play Festival was Walter Thinnes. His play, Coal Creek, received a full production that ran at Centre Stage Jan. 21-30, 2010 (7 performances) with curtains at 8 p.m. The playwright-in-residence was Jeffrey Sweet.

The winner of the 2007 New Play Festival was Stephen Kilduff. His play, The Uncurled Hand, received full production that ran at Centre Stage July 10-19, 2007 (7 performances) with curtains at 8 p.m. A special admission price was established for this production of $10 for adults and $5 for students. The playwright-in-residence was Lee Blessing.

The winner of the 2006 New Play Festival was Peter Snoad. His play, Guided Tour, received a full production at Centre Stage June 7-16, 2007. The Greenville News described it as "a beautifully crafted work. The Beat called it "exuberant ... splendid ... poetic."