MPW, a project of the University of Missouri-Columbia Department of Theatre, was founded in fall of 1998 by Associate Professor David Crespy, for the purposes of providing playwrights an opportunity to hear their plays performed in public readings and receive response and criticism on a weekly basis. The workshop has met over the past ten years every Tuesday night during the fall and spring semesters at the Memorial Union in the north ground-floor lounge. MPW was founded as a open workshop so that all members of the community could participate as writers, actors and audience members. This includes students, faculty, staff and members of the Columbia community. The Workshop works closely with the Cherry Street Artisan, the Missouri Theatre and Columbia Entertainment Company to develop the scripts that are initially read at the MPW in full, workshop productions.

Because the Missouri Playwrights Workshop is open to the public, it has garnered a commendation by the Crossing Boundaries Circle, an interdepartmental organization of faculty, student affairs, staff, and students dedicated to encouraging and rewarding faculty who work collaboratively with their students outside the classroom. In the past, MPW has also sponsored, with the Columbia Entertainment Company, a local community theatre, and the Columbia Young Playwrights Festival, which produces short plays of Columbia school children. As part of the advance work of the Festival, MU playwriting students teach five playwriting workshops in local schools. Scripts developed in the workshop are subsequently developed at MPW and then produced in staged readings at Columbia Entertainment Company.