New Works Mission

To help established and emerging playwrights develop new works as a part of LBP’s commitment to the arts.

Festival Mission

To give each winner a quality reading that focuses on the words of the playwright in order to service the objective evaluation and critique of their work.

 Literary Committee Mission

To objectively read, evaluate and vote on submitted works to discern the readiness for readings.

Established over 30 years ago, the New Works Literary Committee and Annual New Works Festival is a part of Long Beach Playhouse’s commitment to the arts.  Each year starts with novice and experienced playwrights sending their un-produced plays to the committee. Each script is read and evaluated by members of the Literary Committee.  Two “Winners” are selected for the festival.  Each evening one of the winning plays is presented in the form of a staged reading providing the playwright the opportunity to hear their words brought to life by actors.  The audience plays an important part by providing feedback for the playwright in the discussion that takes place after the staged reading.  Winning playwrights also receive detailed written critiques by professional theatre critics.

The 2027 Festival Submissions will open on June 1st at 9am!

New This Year! Accepting both SHORT and FULL length plays!

To prepare here are this year’s submissions rules and requests. The LBP New Works Festival Committee accepts:

* Un-produced, un-published, non-musical, short AND full-length English language plays.

*Short Plays must have a running time between 30 and 50 minutes.

* Full-length plays must run at least 75 minutes.

* Submissions should be in standard play format and sent as a PDF using 12 pt. font in either Times Roman or Courier.

* Submissions should include contact information (name, address, phone number and email address) on the title page. Please also include page numbers, a synopsis of the play and character descriptions.

* You may submit a total of two plays: one short play and one full-length play. Each submission requires a separate submission fee.

The 2027 Festival Submissions will open on June 1st at 9am!

The New Works Committee will be accepting the first 100 submissions through our portal, and we will be closing the portal on June 30th as the last possible day to submit if the maximum has not been reached.

Interested in reading new plays and help picking the winners of our Festival? Join the Committee! Email NewWorks@LBPlayhouse.org to find out more!

If you have any other questions regarding the Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival, please send an email directly to the New Works Literary Committee at:

newworks@lbplayhouse.org

___________________________________________________________________________