Edmonds Driftwood Players is committed to fostering new plays and supporting playwrights in our community. New Works strives to create spaces for playwrights to collaborate with actors, directors, and each other to develop original full-length plays, forged of individual creativity and group camaraderie. The New Works program has two interconnected components: the Driftwood After Dark playwrights group and the First Draft staged reading series.
In New Works there are no restrictions on style, genre, language, or content. Playwrights are encouraged to explore the full gamut of human experience with curiosity, authenticity, grace, and grit. While we hope to engage audiences with the work, we are willing to take them to dark and uncomfortable places in the process. Plays have ranged from macabre dramas to witty comedies, and the hope is that both our repertoire and membership will continue to grow and diversify.
Driftwood After Dark is a group of local playwrights who meet to share and develop new work. Each meeting involves a presentation of a script, read cold by group members and invited actors. Readings are followed by Liz Lerman style feedback sessions, where all who are present can give impressions, ask questions, and offer suggestions, aiming to help playwrights with future drafts. One play can receive multiple readings as it moves though different stages of development. These readings typically just involve the playwrights and actors in an intimate setting.
First Draft, which is curated by the members of Driftwood After Dark, presents six to eight staged and directed readings of nearly production-ready scripts for an audience each year. Although the majority of these public readings are sourced from the development pipeline of Driftwood After Dark, one or two plays each year are selected from scripts submitted by local writers who are not part of the group. Writers receive help in recruiting a director and actors and must commit to being part of the rehearsal process and to attending the reading and receiving feedback from the audience.
With a few rehearsals and minimal staging elements, First Draft readings give audiences an opportunity to experience the sorts of plays not usually included in the Mainstage Season, and to be a part of the development process by participating in post-reading feedback sessions to help playwrights further polish their work.
If you are a playwright local to Puget Sound and are interested in being considered for First Draft and/or membership in Driftwood After Dark, please submit your full-length play (as a Word or pdf attachment). Plays for First Draft should not exceed 100 pages. Please send your play, along with a brief note about yourself and the program you are interested in, to: [email protected]
First Draft response time is 8-12 weeks.
Driftwood After Dark response time is 8 weeks.
Another opportunity for playwrights to become involved in New Works is through submission to our annual Festival of Shorts. Click HERE to read more!
30 January, 1940. We are in the psychiatric hospital at Wiesloch, Germany as we see four female patients on the eve of being sent to a transfer center where they will receive special care. Our nurse in charge of this group, Nurse Ava Gerhard, has a secret. And so our story begins…
Approximate run time: 90-minutes without an intermission
*Content warning: This story contains dark themes, but it needs to be told. It does have comedic elements, however, this play contains adult language and some violent behavior (although physicality is limited due to scripts on music stands). Themes include Nazi Germany, suicide, sex work, eugenics, and the mentally ill.
Online ticket reservations turn off at 4pm on Friday, April 21, 2023.
Check back for upcoming First Draft readings, scheduled for: