The Ashland New Plays Festival (ANPF) is a non-profit organization based in

Ashland, Oregon Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. It lies along Interstate 5 approximately 16 miles (26 km) north of the California border and near the south end of the Rogue Valley. The city's population was 21,360 at the 2020 cen ...

, that encourages playwrights in the creation of new works through public readings. The organization was founded in 1992 and is managed by a volunteer board of directors and artistic board, ANPF's flagship festival is a playwright competition that culminates in the reading of four new plays culled from hundreds of submissions. The festival features professional actors from the

Oregon Shakespeare Festival The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is a regional repertory theatre in Ashland, Oregon, United States, founded in 1935 by Angus L. Bowmer. The Festival now offers matinee and evening performances of a wide range of classic and contemporary pla ...

and the community. In 2011, more than 200 playwrights participated through submissions and at the festival. The first few festivals were collaborations between local theater groups. As the years passed, the festival grew to draw participants from across the United States. In 2009, management of the festival was taken over by a group of volunteers from the festival's past.

Participants and awards

Playwrights such as

David Rambo David Rambo (born May 28, 1955) is an American writer, playwright, actor and producer. Outside of work in the entertainment field, he is a distinguished guest speaker at Hampshire College and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, ...

, Jamie Pachino,

Lisa Loomer Lisa Loomer (born 1950) is an American playwright and screenwriter who has also worked as an actress and stand-up comic. She is best known for her play ''The Waiting Room'' (1994), in which three women from different time periods meet in a moder ...

, and E. M. Lewis have worked with ANPF over the years. Playwright Karen Zacharias received a

Helen Hayes Award The Helen Hayes Awards are theater awards recognizing excellence in professional theater in the Washington, D.C. area since 1983. The awards are named in tribute of Helen Hayes, who is also known as the "First Lady of American Theatre." They ar ...

for her 1999 ANPF-winning play ''The Sins of Sor Juana.'' E. M. Lewis's ''Song of Extinction'' (ANPF 2008) went on to full productions and won the 2009 Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award as well as first prize in the 2009 EcoDrama Festival in Eugene, Oregon. Lewis also won the 2008 Francesca Primus Prize for an emerging woman playwright.

References

{{reflist, 30em Theatre festivals in the United States Ashland, Oregon Tourist attractions in Jackson County, Oregon 1992 establishments in Oregon Festivals established in 1992