About Us

We are now celebrating our twentieth year! Founded in 1992 and managed by a volunteer board of directors, Ashland New Plays Festival is a nonprofit organization that encourages playwrights in the creation of new works through public readings. We also offer an educational forum to the community through discussions and workshops.

ANPF's flagship festival is our international playwright competition that culminates in the reading of four new plays culled from hundreds of submissions by a cadre of volunteer readers. This unique and much-loved event features professional actors from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the community. These readings and the discussions that follow are a rich theatrical experience for audiences, and the guest playwrights look to our sophisticated playgoers for responses to their works as they evolve from the page to the stage. In those magical exchanges of feedback, audience comments may help turn a very good play into a masterpiece or encourage a playwright to continue his or her efforts in the challenging endeavor of bringing a new work to the public.

At the heart of ANPF is our Reading Committee, which starts with organizational and training meetings in the fall and then reads blinded scripts through the winter and the spring. Using a scoring system, readers reduce the submissions from several hundred to around 35. At that point discussions lead to 10 to 14 semifinalists. The four winning scripts are selected by the artistic director and four theatrical directors. The ANPF Board of Directors takes it from there, planning a five-day festival in beautiful Ashland, Oregon, that draws playwrights and theatre lovers from far and wide for a week of workshops, readings, and playwright appreciation as we celebrate new works for the stage.


Want to Get Involved?

We're always looking for volunteers and novel ideas for fundraisers, and we welcome your comments. Please contact us at info@AshlandNewPlays.org and share your suggestions for keeping the festival alive and well! 

Send us your contact info. (We promise not to share it.)

 

Our Mission

Ashland New Plays Festival assists playwrights in the development of new works through public readings and offers an educational forum to the community through discussions and workshops.
 

ANPF Board of Directors

  • Gray McKee, President
  • Frederick F. Wright, Vice President
  • Dolores Marx, Secretary/Treasurer
  • Sunny Anderson
  • Terry Ansnes
  • Amanda Berkeley
  • Melissa Brown
  • Joe Collonge
  • Bill Faiia
  • Tilly Gibbs
  • Mary Pat Power
  • Alan Rosenberg
  • Norma Wright
  • Linda Young

ANPF Artistic Board

  • Douglas Rowe, Artistic Director
  • Elizabeth von Radics,
    Marketing Director
  • Peter Alzado
  • Federico Behncke
  • Orion Bradshaw
  • Richard Elmore
  • Robert Frank
  • Livia Genise
  • Jonathan Haugen
  • Michael Hume
  • Liisa Ivary
  • Cristofer Jean
  • EM Lewis
  • John Pribyl
  • Bill Rauch
  • Shane Rogers
  • Caroline Shaffer
  • Eddie Wallace
  • Derrick Lee Weeden
  • Lyda Woods
  • Angela Workman