New Visions/New Voices is a week-long festival in May for playwrights and theaters to stimulate and support the creation of new plays and musicals for young audiences and families, culminating in a weekend festival of rehearsed readings and discussions with professionals in the field from around the country.

Since its inception in 1991, the festival has assisted in the development of 73 new plays, musicals, and operas from 67 playwrights and 31 composers working with 47 US and five international theater companies.

For a more in-depth look at the process, please view these articles from TYA Today about New Visions/New Voices 2002 and 2006.

Has there been a past participant from your home state?

New Visions/New Voices 2010 Participating Projects

While at the Kennedy Center, selected playwrights, directors, music directors, composers, and actors work collaboratively in a weeklong intensive to develop new works. After revisions, rewrites, and rehearsals of the new plays and musicals, the works are presented as rehearsed readings during the three-day national conference for theater professionals, educators, and others interested in the field. New Visions/New Voices concludes with discussions open to festival participants led by Todd London, Artistic Director of New Dramatists in New York.

This season's festival will highlight readings of the following new works, listed alphabetically by theater:

• The Flea and the Professor is a play with music adapted from a Hans Christian Andersen story by Jordan Harrison and composer Richard Gray, presented by Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia, PA, and directed by Anne Kauffman. Magic tricks, hot-air balloons, fussy cannibals, and a talented flea are all part of a witty, whimsical, wistful and wise tale of a life-long friendship.
• The Scarecrow and His Servant is adapted from a Philip Pullman novel by Jeffrey Hatcher for The Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis, MN. Directed by Peter C. Brosius, this picaresque story echoes Cervantes and Commedia through the ridiculous yet tender relationship between the Scarecrow and the hapless Jack. Filled with glorious language, wit, and adventures both dangerous and silly.
• Don't Tell Me I Can't Fly is inspired by the life and work of multi-media collage artist Della Wells and written by Y York for the First Stage Children's Theater in Milwaukee, WI. Directed by Mark Lutwak, the play revolves around Tonia, a nine-year-old African-American girl living in the 1960s who struggles to balance her parents' survival strategy of keeping a low profile with her own artistic soul. When conformity fails, Tonia gives creativity a chance, allowing her family, her friends, and the world to appreciate her uniqueness.
• Promised Land of Balalatladi comes from the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is written by Omphile Molusi and directed by Monageng ‘Vice' Motshabi. Based on traditional folklore, the play tells the story of six survivors of a village devastated by man-eating ogres. When they elect a leader in the aftermath, will his newfound powerand mysterious magic get the better of him, destroying them all, or will he bring harmony as promised?
• The Epic of Sunjata, written and directed by Christopher T. Parks from the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ. Sunjata is the story of a boy born lame, but destined to become the greatest king of the medieval Mali Empire. This epic tale of sorcery has been passed down through centuries of oral tradition and will be presented as a completely interactive production for young audiences.
• The Very True and Unusual Life of Chook, from Real TV in Melbourne, Australia, is written by Angela Betzien and directed by Leticia Cáceres. Freely adapted from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and set in a mythical desert landscape, two down-on-their-luck travelers read stories from the penny chapbooks they sell to children and become engrossed in the story of Chook, the strange half-bird, half-human creature that falls from the sky and becomes stranded in a foreign land never to return home.
• The Edge of Peace reunites playwright Suzan Zeder, director Linda Hartzell, and ASL Master/Actor Billy Seago for the final play in The Ware Trilogy, commissioned by the Seattle Children's Theatre in Seattle, WA. Set in a small mid-western town during the last days of World War II, we see the impact on a community of a soldier missing in action and his little brother refusing to believe the inevitable. This expansive play charts a journey of hope through a landscape of loss.

Three additional projects have been named as alternates, should one of the other artistic teams be unable to attend. These are The Fool on the Hill by Kevin Dyer from Action Transport Theatre in Cheshire, UK; Mirandy and Brother Wind, by Michael Bobbitt and John L. Cornelius from Adventure Theatre in Glen Echo, MD; Field Music by Laura Schellhardt, from Northlight Theatre in Skokie, IL.

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International Observership Program

This year, for the first time, New Visions/New Voices will host international playwright observers, who will participate in a playwright slam, observe the process of one of the artistic teams, converse with a dramaturg, and share their work with each other. The 2010 New Visions/New Voices playwright observers will be Hope Azeda from Kigali, Rwanda; Ashish Kumar Ghosh from New Delhi, India; Vicky Ireland from London, UK; Amaranta Leyva from Mexico City, Mexico; and Natalia Skorokhod from St. Petersburg, Russia.

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Registration Information for New Visions/New Voices 2010

Registration information to attend the 2010 New Visions/New Voices Festival will be available on this website in early 2010. Should you have any questions, please contact us at kctya@kennedy-center.org.

The 2010 Festival readings will begin on Friday May 21, 2010 at 6:00pm in the Kennedy Center's Family Theater and will conclude in the early afternoon of Sunday May 23rd.

 Prior to the beginning of the Festival, we would like to invite all registrants to a special performance of the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences production of Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical at 3:00pm on May 21st in the Family Theater. Script and lyrics by Mo Willems based on his book Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, music by Michael Silversher, and directed by Rosemary Newcott.

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Actors

The Kennedy Center attends the League of Washington Theater and local Actors' Equity Association Liaison auditions each year and generally casts New Visions/New Voices using local actors. As New Visions/New Voices directors and writers are from out of town, auditions are not held. Please do not send resumes and headshots.

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For more information on New Visions/New Voices, please contact us at:

Please contact us at:

Or, you can e-mail us at kctya@kennedy-center.org

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