NewPlayFest 2028
Celebrating new voices in community theatre. Explore the selected Producing Theatres for AACT NewPlayFest 2028 as the next cycle of world premiere productions gets underway.
AACT NewPlayFest 2028
AACT NewPlayFest 2028 is underway, with producing theatres selected and the script review process continuing.
AACT NewPlayFest is a national program that connects playwrights, community theatres, reviewers, and dramaturgs to develop and produce outstanding new plays. Every cycle culminates in world premiere productions that introduce audiences to fresh stories while helping playwrights refine their work.
The selected plays will receive fully realized world premiere productions between June 1, 2027 and December 31, 2028. Following their premieres, the winning plays will be published and licensed through Dramatic Publishing, expanding their reach to theatres nationwide.
Below are the community theatres selected to produce the world premiere productions for AACT NewPlayFest 2028. Play titles, playwrights, and production dates will be announced as the selection process continues.
Meet the Producing Theatres
These outstanding community theatres have been selected to produce the world premiere productions for AACT NewPlayFest 2028. As the script review process continues, each theatre will be matched with one of the winning plays. Play titles, playwrights, and production dates will be announced in the coming months.
Aloha Theatre
Aloha Theatre is a community-based performing arts organization serving West Hawaiʻi through a year-round season of mainstage productions, concerts, film screenings, arts education, and youth programming. Known for presenting an eclectic mix of classic plays, contemporary works, musicals, and locally created productions, the theatre fosters opportunities for artists and audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
Its long-running Original Play Festival has helped develop and showcase new plays from Hawaiʻi and beyond, reflecting its commitment to artistic excellence, new work development, and preserving one of Hawaiʻi Island's most historic cultural venues.
Baytown Little Theater
Since 1961, Baytown Little Theater has been a continuously active resource for theatre and arts education opportunities in Baytown, Texas, a Houston-suburb community. BLT’s six-production season, plus extra-season and New Year’s offerings, features fresh stagings of both new and classical works with multigenerational, diverse actors and directors from the greater Houston area.
A partnership with the Lee College Performing Arts Center provides a large, community-focused summer production space connecting BLT and area organizations. An active AACT and Theatre Network of Texas organization, BLT has featured playwrights’ new works as extra-season and regular-season productions throughout its 65-year history.
Chicago Street Theatre
Chicago Street Theatre traces its roots to 1955, when a dedicated group of volunteers saved Valparaiso's historic Memorial Opera House from demolition and formed the Community Theatre Guild. From its earliest days, the organization has embraced artistic exploration, striving to include at least one new or challenging work in every season.
Over the decades, the theatre has earned national and international recognition, including bringing the top prize back to the United States from the 1991 Glasgow International Theatre Festival. After losing its performance space in 1995, the company continued producing theatre throughout the community before purchasing its current home, a former church, in 1997 and becoming Chicago Street Theatre. Today, the organization is also known for its thriving education program, helping develop the next generation of theatre artists while continuing its legacy of outstanding community theatre.
Ten Fifteen Productions
Located in the heart of historic downtown Astoria, Oregon, Ten Fifteen Productions is a 73-seat studio theatre producing six plays each season, along with a variety of special events. Known for presenting "theatre that makes you think," the company is committed to bringing audiences thought-provoking stories that aren't typically found at the average community theatre.
Since opening its doors in 2021, Ten Fifteen Productions has embraced new work, presenting six original scripts and adaptations as part of its regular seasons. The company is excited to continue that tradition through AACT NewPlayFest 2028 and looks forward to welcoming a playwright to its beautiful corner of the Pacific Northwest.
The Sauk
The Sauk, Hillsdale County’s only community theatre, provides year-round theatrical programming that enriches the cultural life of its community. As a volunteer-driven organization, The Sauk offers opportunities for individuals of all ages and experience levels through its mainstage season, intimate SaukSeconds series, and a variety of unique theatrical experiences.
The Sauk’s programming includes an annual 24-Hour Theatre Project; Sauk Shorts, a ten-minute play festival; and the nationally recognized Plays-in-Development Program. The Sauk has also been a proud producing theatre for AACT NewPlayFest 2020, producing On Pine Knoll Street by Mark Cornell, and AACT NewPlayFest 2024, producing Criminal Mischief by William Cameron.
Theatre Guild of Webster Groves
As it celebrates its 100th season, the Theatre Guild of Webster Groves stands as a testament to the enduring power of community theatre. Sustained by generations of volunteers, artists, and audiences, the Guild has enriched the cultural life of the St. Louis region for a century through performance and creative opportunity.
Its history includes a long-running one-act playwriting competition that recognized the early talent of Tennessee Williams. Today, the Guild continues to champion new voices while creating bold, joyful, and deeply human theatrical experiences that bring artists and audiences together across generations.
Alternate Producing Theatre: The Texas Theatre
The Texas Theatre is a nonprofit community theatre based in the historic Stephen & Mary Birch Texas Theatre in Seguin, Texas. Originally built in 1929 and lovingly restored in 2011, the theatre provides a distinguished venue for performances while preserving the charm and character of one of Central Texas's treasured historic landmarks.
Since reopening, The Texas Theatre has produced a wide variety of plays, musicals, concerts, and educational programs celebrating the performing arts. Since 2022, the organization has continued expanding its lineup of productions and educational initiatives, inspiring artists and audiences while helping nurture a thriving performing arts community throughout Central Texas.
About the Alternate Producing Theatre
In addition to the six Producing Theatres, AACT selects one Alternate Producing Theatre for each NewPlayFest cycle. Should a selected theatre become unable to participate, the Alternate Producing Theatre is prepared to step in and ensure a winning play still receives its world premiere production. We are grateful to The Texas Theatre for its willingness to support AACT NewPlayFest 2028 in this important role.
Play Anthologies
The winning plays are published in an anthology by Dramatic Publishing Company, which also highlights the Producing Community Theatre and cast for each production.
The Jack K. Ayre and Frank Ayre Lee Theatre Foundation
AACT NewPlayFest is made possible in part by a grant from the Jack K. Ayre and Frank Ayre Lee Theatre Foundation.
Jack K. Ayre celebrated his 90th birthday before passing away in December 2011. At his birthday party, he sang with a barbershop quartet, one of his favorite activities, and celebrated with his cousin and lifelong friend, Frank Ayre Lee.
Though as adults they lived on opposite sides of the country, the cousins kept in touch through letters that showed a love for the written word and an irreverent sense of humor. Jack participated in theatre productions at Drew University in New Jersey and at a community theatre in Connecticut in his younger years, and continued that interest when he moved to California. Mr. Lee was also an avid theatre supporter and dabbled in playwriting, adapting Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book for a children’s theatre production, and penning McSteg, a tongue-in-cheek discourse, ribbing his cousin Jack and based on a scene in Shakespeare’s MacBeth.
The Jack K. Ayre and Frank Ayre Lee Theatre Foundation was created by the children of Frank Ayre Lee as a tribute to their father, who passed away in August 2012, and a legacy for the creative endeavors of Jack, who was an advertising executive and public relations director. The family is pleased to honor both men through a lasting legacy promoting new works for theatre through AACT NewPlayFest.