Circuit Playhouse, Inc. Reveals Winners of 2024 NewWorks@TheWorks Playwriting Competition

Playhouse on the Square has revealed the six Finalists of the 2024 NewWorks@TheWorks Playwriting Competition! These six plays were selected out of hundreds of submissions from playwrights around the world. All Finalists receive staged readings in Memphis, and two will be selected as Winners of the Competition and receive world premiere productions in Playhouse's Season 57.

i always find the rain

By Hank Rion

Henry travels to Florida to help his gay, alcoholic Dad get settled into Florida's largest retirement mecca. When Henry's brother, his pregnant wife, and Mom arrive, it becomes the first time the Robbins' have been in the same room together in over 15 years. The acid-tongued family's seams start to uproariously rip, revealing truths lying dormant beneath the surface.

Tragedy Sound

By Karen Saari

Three young women accept a dare and embark on a canoe trek in frigid waters. Dangerous conditions prevail and force them to face the choices they've made and the trappings of life in their hometown.

Call Me From the Grave

Music and Lyrics by: Charlie Romano, 

Book by: Harold Hodge, Jr.

Call Me From the Grave tells the legendary story of Robert Johnson (born 1911, died 1938), a Black Blues musician from the Mississippi Delta who, legend has it, sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for musical success. In Greenwood, Mississippi, a young sharecropper, Robert, dreams of becoming a Bluesman. When he is at his lowest, he is approached by the Devil attempting to make a deal...

The Hero and the Scholar

By Marshall Botvinick 

Robert Malone has been a university professor for nearly three decades. But when a student mentions his lectures in a suicide note, he finds himself fighting for both his job and his innocence. Yet he can't help but wonder: Did I cause this? Are my words the reason a young man died?

sex/work

By Kristen Field

An (almost) thirty-year-old virgin. A wife and mother who works as an escort. An aging conservative news anchor, and a stripper who steals phones. sex/work is an exploration of what happens when a young woman desperate to forge a connection that feels true, is forced to navigate a world built on transactions.

Eight Ways to Plead with a God

By Kanika Asavari Vaish

Six tourists and a local climbing guide set out to summit a historically unsurmountable Himalayan mountain believed to be the abode of several Godly presences. As their physical limits, relationships to one another, and perceptions of reality are tested with each meter they climb, they are forced to strip down to their best selves and find a way to achieve their new collective goal: survival. 

The NewWorks@TheWorks Playwriting Competition was established in 2013 to renew Playhouse on the Square's focus on cultivating new and original theatre. 2023 saw a historic year for submissions to NW@TW with over 500 works entered for consideration. All scripts submitted were adjudicated by a panel of judges that consisted of the Director of New Works, Playhouse on the Square staff, Resident Company members, Mid-South writers, and directors.

To post a comment, you must register and login.