New Play Lab

ATTENTION: Local Playwrights

We’re on the lookout for fresh plays, unique voices, and stories that will captivate and challenge our audience. If this sounds like you, we invite you to submit your work for consideration in our New Play Lab.

“How will this work?”

New Play Lab will center its original productions on:

Writers — The architects of narratives that reflect and influence societal and cultural evolution.

Directors — The creative minds who bring our stories to life with authenticity and originality.

Actors — The performers who bring color and depth to our stories, forming the essence of a complete theatrical production.

If selected, Aurora Theatre will provide local writers a space, cast, and director, to bring their original story to the stage. Whether you’re picked to participate in our Staged Readings, or invited to put a work On Its Feet, local playwrights will get to work directly with Aurora Theatre actors and directors to showcase and produce their work in front of a live audience. 

We love elaborate sets, complex lights, and cutting-edge costumes as much as the next theatre, but New Play Lab will focus on the roots of what makes a play great — and it all starts with YOU, the writer. 

If this is you, submit today!

STAGED READS Staged Reads — Actors, scripts, music stands. After a week of rehearsals with the cast and director, we’ll put on an open, free-to-the-public staged reading of your show, letting the audience focus on the story and dialogue. It’s a fun, low-key way to see your new work come to life. Rehearsals: Sept 6–11 Performance: Sept 11 .

ON ITS FEET A play that’s On Its Feet will undergo four weekly read/write workshops with Aurora Theatre actors. These closed, workshop-style reads will dissect your play scene-by-scene, page-by-page, and line-by-line, like script surgery. We’ll meet once a week for four weeks to iterate, make changes, and refine your script. Afterward, we’ll rehearse for two weeks with full blocking and memorization. While New Play Lab focuses on refining the script, direction, and acting, technical elements will be minimal. At the end of the two-week rehearsal, there will be two public performances. Rehearsals: Oct 28 — Nov 8 Performance: Nov 8, 9