Education

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This Year's Festival Highlights
Registration for Festival Attendees
Frequently Asked Questions
Actors

New Visions/New Voices is a week-long residency in April for playwrights and theatres to stimulate and support the creation of new plays and musicals for young audiences and families, culminating in a weekend festival of staged readings and discussions with professionals in the field from around the country.

As of 2006, NVNV has assisted in the development of 66 new plays from 44 theaters in 27 states, and two international companies; involving 56 playwrights, 30 composers and 60 directors.

Projects may be submitted at any stage of the development process, from a completed draft nearly ready for production to a treatment at the conception stage. Once selected, artistic teams - playwrights, directors and composers - will come to Washington D.C. and rehearse and evaluate their work for 5 days and then present the projects as staged readings, followed by a monitored discussion before an invited audience of fellow artistic, academic and administrative advocates in the field. Each team has the freedom to move at their own pace in setting their week's end goals.

For a more in-depth look at the process, please view these articles from TYA Today about New Visions/New Voices 2002 and 2006

Has there been a past participant from your home state?

This Year’s Festival highlights

American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco, California
John Carrafa will direct playwright Christopher Dimond’s Dani Girl, a musical tragicomedy which follows an imaginative seven-year old girl fighting leukemia. Music composed by Michael Kooman.

Patch Theatre Company, Adelaide, Australia
Directed by Dave Brown, The Happiest Happiness Medicine Show is a collaboratively devised work that includes such things as a flea circus, a sharpshooting act, a cure for baldness and a ventriloquist’s dummy called Danny, taking us to a place where the invisible becomes tangible and happiness can be bottled.

American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Playwright R.N. Sandberg’s The Judgment of Bett tells the true story of Elizabeth Freeman (Mum Bett), whose case challenging Massachusetts’ slavery laws in the late 1700s helped change the course of history. The play, directed by Scott Zigler, is co-produced by ART and Discovering Justice.

Adventure Stage Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Katrina: The Girl Who Wanted Her Name Back, written by Jason Tremblay and directed by Tom Arvetis, follows a young girl from New Orleans on a magical journey to reclaim her name and city in the face of the devastating hurricane.

Polka Theatre, London, England
In playwright Kevin Dyer’s The Monster Under the Bed, young Ben is in a mess. His best friend Vince has turned against him, his Mum isn’t listening…and oh, yeah—there’s a monster under the bed. Directed by Richard Shannon.

Bloomington Playwrights Project, Bloomington, Indiana
In Nocturnal, four teenagers venture into the night to wage a war of wills. When the dares turn perilous, will anyone have the courage to back down? Written by Ramon Esquivel and directed by Richard Perez.

Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, Toronto, Canada
Adapted by Paula Wing from the book by Ben Rice, Pobby and Dingan centers on Kellyanne and her two imaginary friends. But when the friends go missing, Kellyanne’s health begins to deteriorate and it’s up to her brother to not only find the friends, but to also save their family. Directed by Stewart Arnott.

Download our 2008 New Visions/New Voices brochure for more information regarding this year's festival and highlight's.

REGISTRATION FOR NEW VISIONS/NEW VOICES: April 25-27, 2008

Registration for New Visions/New Voices 2008 now available online. If you are unable to open the document, please contact us to obtain a hard copy of the application. Registrations should be returned to us at the contact information listed below and will be taken up to the beginning of the festival on April 25, 2008.

For more information on the New Visions/New Voices 2008 festival, please contact us at:

New Visions/New Voices
Education Department
The Kennedy Center
P.O. Box 101510
Arlington, VA 22210

Phone: (202) 416- 8830
Fax: (202) 416-8297

Or, you can e-mail us at kctya@kennedy-center.org

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I submit a proposal for New Visions/New Voices?
A producing theater submits a proposal including a director, a playwright, and a work-in-progress for consideration. Previously produced scripts are not eligible. Submissions can be in the form of a script or a detailed treatment or scenario of a proposed project. If the proposal is a treatment or scenario, we will ask that playwrights submit a writing sample to illustrate their style. Projects must also be part of a forthcoming season at the producing theater.

New Visions/New Voices is unique in that submissions can be at any stage of development, ranging from an idea to a script that has had other readings that is almost ready for production.
What happens if I'm selected?
The producing theaters of the selected projects are provided with an honorarium from the Kennedy Center to assist with personal expenses. The Kennedy Center will provide travel for the creative teams (director, playwright, and, if a musical, composer) to come to Washington, DC. The producing theater needs to cover housing, per diem, and fees for their creative team. . The Kennedy Center provides actors, stage managers, music directors, and dramaturgical and production support. Projects rehearse three to four hours a day, allowing time for rewrites, within Actor's Equity staged reading guidelines.

Actors

The Kennedy Center attends the League of Washington Theater auditions each summer and generally casts New Visions/New Voices using local actors. As New Visions/New Voices directors and writers are from out of town, auditions are not held. Please do not send resumes and headshots.