Overview
The Mizzou New Play Series was founded along with the Missouri Playwrights Workshop in 1998 by Dr. David A. Crespy. At the Mizzou Play Series, we attempt to produce 15-20 plays in concert performance, script-in-hand, with rehearsed readings and staging in a single weekend. It is an exuberant, exciting experience, highlighting new work by students, faculty, and MU Theatre alumni and involves teams of playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, and actors facilitated by our design tech students.
While the students take various classes related to dramatic writing meet every Tuesday for the Missouri Playwrights Workshop, which is our weekly dramatists’ salon, those readings are unrehearsed cold readings right out of our word processors. The Mizzou New Play Series takes that process of new play development to the next level with rehearsed read-throughs and stagings of the plays in concert performance.
Process
Each script receives an initial read-through with the actors, director, playwright, and dramaturg present. At that rehearsal, the director and playwright decide which stage directions should be read, and where the play needs to be revised to prepare it for staging. Playwrights are allowed to revise the script up to the moment it is staged as a concert reading. At that point, the playwrights must put down their pens, and the director picks up their baton and stages the play with music stands and chairs, to create entrances and exits, and give a general idea of how the play might look if fully staged. After the performances, which are open to the public, there is a talk-back session after each play is presented, and the audience is given questions by the playwright, to inquire about how the play is working. The talkback is curated by the dramaturg assigned to the playwright/director/actor team. This is an important part of the new play development process and is one of the reasons we’ve had so many award-winning playwrights at Mizzou.
History of Dramatic Writing at Mizzou
Since the founding of the Missouri Playwrights Workshop and Mizzou New Play Series in 1998, nearly 150 Mizzou playwrights have gone on to become regional and national finalists in the National Playwriting Program of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF). In 2017, the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region V awarded a prestigious gold medallion to our MU Writing For Performance Program (now the Certificate in Dramatic Writing) and tonight you are in for a treat as the Mizzou New Play Series is one of the many integral parts of our program.
This has always been a group effort—as this program has been supported by our faculty, students, staff, and the members of the Columbia, MO theatre community, who have all contributed to this explosive flowering of new work. Producing dozens of plays by playwrights in concert performance in a single week takes a lot of theatre magic, and a certain amount of elbow grease to make that happen—thanks to our wonderful playwrights, directors, actors, stage managers, and crew.
MU Theatre’s focus on new playwriting dates back almost one hundred years with the Missouri Theatre Workshop which was producing new plays in the 1920s. Renowned playwright Tennessee Williams wrote his first play, Beauty is the Word, at the University of Missouri in 1930, and it was submitted for the MU Dramatic Arts Club’s Dramatic Prize Plays contest. And in 2011, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Lanford Wilson, left his entire literary estate to the University of Missouri’s Ellis Library Special Collection and Rare Books. Many of our student dramatists have had the opportunity to work with Lanford’s original manuscripts in their research and writing.
The plays are performed as concert performances, with just actors, scripts, music stands, and stools – and the audience provides the design elements with their imagination—so listen closely! The audiences are part of the development process, and we ask them to join us for a brief discussion of the plays, directly following the performances with the playwright, director, and actors.
And if you have never written a play or a screenplay, then join the students, faculty, and staff here at the Missouri Playwrights Workshop—it’s open to any Missouri playwright. MPW meets every Tuesday evening of the fall and winter semesters, at the Hawthorne Lounge of the Memorial Union at 7pm. The workshops are free and open to the public. Contact Dr. Crespy at CrespyD@missouri.edu
Order | Year | Student/Play | Regional Finalist | National Finalist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
106 | 2025 | Love Thrown Away by Sophie Campos | Gary Garrison Ten-Minute Play Award Regional Finalists |
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105 | 2025 | Driving Lesson | KCACTF Region 5 Ten-Minute Play Lottery Workshop Selections |
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104 | 2025 | Paths Through Madness | KCACTF Region 5 Ten-Minute Play Lottery Workshop Selections |
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103 | 2024 | Spring Cleaning by Sara Wiley | Gary Garrison Ten-Minute Play Award Regional Finalists |
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102 | 2024 | American Girl(s) by Abby Uphoff | KCACTF Region 5 John Cauble Award For Outstanding Short Play | KCACTF National John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play, 2nd Place |
101 | 2023 | Bitten by a Boomslang by Andrew Black | KCACTF Region 5 Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award |
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100 | 2023 | What Gay Marriage Means to Me by Andrew Black | KCACTF Region 5 National Partners of America Theatre (NAPAT) Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting | KCACTF Region 5 National Partners of America Theatre (NAPAT) Award National Semi-Finalist |
99 | 2023 | drive safe/play safe by Kennedy Rhoades | KCACTF Ten-Minute Play Lottery Workshop Selections |
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98 | 2023 | Red Light Open City by Abby Uphoff | KCACTF Region 5 Gary Garrison Ten-Minute Play Festival |
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97 | 2022 | The Lobotomy of Betty Valentine by Abby Uphoff | Honorable Mention as part of the KCACTF Region 5 National Partners of American Theatre Full-Length Play Award |
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96 | 2022 | Voice of the Voiceless: The Oscar Romero Play by Xiomara Cornejo | KCACTF Region 5 National Partners of America Theatre (NAPAT) Award Recipient | KCACTF Region 5 National Partners of America Theatre (NAPAT) Award National Semi-Finalist |
95 | 2022 | Medboy by Dayton Swanson, Regional Finalist | KCACTF Region 5 John Cauble Award For Outstanding Short Play | National Semi-Finalist, Cauble Award |
94 | 2022 | Eat The Rich by Abby Uphoff, Regional Finalist | KCACTF Region 5 John Cauble Award For Outstanding Short Play | National Semi-Finalist, Cauble Award |
93 | 2022 | With Our Bodies by Yasmeen Mir, Regional Finalist | KCACTF Region 5 John Cauble Award For Outstanding Short Play |
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92 | 2021 | Abi Mirikitani’s Limes in Santo Domingo | Ten-Minute Play Region V Finalist | Ten-Minute Play National Finalist |
91 | 2021 | Austin Thomas’s Margaritaville 2020 | Ten-Minute Play Region V Finalist |
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90 | 2021 | Constance Bougie’s Wall | Special Recogition: Dynamic use of Spectacle in the Writing of a 10-Minute Play |
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89 | 2021 | Constance Bougie’s Wall | Ten-Minute Play Region V Finalist ( |
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88 | 2020 | Kaylin Jones My Own Darling Boy | Ten-Minute Play Region V Finalist |
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87 | 2020 | Andrew Black, The Tale of Noah’s Wife | KCACTF Region V Gary Garrison Ten-Minute Play Region V Finalist |
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86 | 2020 | Andrew Black, The Clean Plate Club | KCACTF One-Act Plays Festival |
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85 | 2020 | Abby Land’s I’ll Be Seeing You | Full-Length Play, Region V Certificate of Merit | National Semi-Finalist, Rosa Parks Award |
84 | 2019 | Zahria Moore’s Passion Play | Invited Production, Region V Finalist | KCACTF Citizen Artist Awards |
83 | 2019 | The OMNILVX METHOD by Taylor Sklenar | Full-Length Play, Region V Certificate of Merit |
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82 | 2019 | Enamored of an Ass by Taylor Sklenar | Full-Length Play, Region V Certificate of Merit |
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81 | 2019 | Missing Parts by Taylor Sklenar | KCACTF Region V Protest Plays |
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80 | 2019 | Redemption by Taylor Sklenar | KCACTF Region V Protest Plays |
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79 | 2019 | The Gender Reveal by Kaylin Jones | One-Act Play Region V Finalist |
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78 | 2019 | Fission by Taylor Sklenar | One-Act Play Region V Finalist |
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77 | 2019 | The White Bovina by Blake Wiilloughby | Ten-Minute Play Region V Finalist |
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76 | 2019 | Uber by Taylor Sklenar | Ten-Minute Play Region V Finalist |
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75 | 2018 | Kaylin Jones, A Beautiful Death on 34th and Fifth |
| KCACTF Lorraine Hansberry Award, distinguished achievement. |
74 | 2018 | {AV:VR:RL} by Taylor Sklenar, | Full-Length Play, Region V Certificate of Merit |
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73 | 2018 | Jamie Berry’s When Battles Lost and Won | Full-Length Play, Region V Finalist |
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72 | 2018 | Amy Taylor’s Glass People | Ten-Minute Play, Region V Finalist |
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71 | 2018 | Lainie Vansant’s Shiver and Shake | One-Act Play, Region V Finalist |
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70 | 2018 | Zahria Moore’s Passion Play | One-Act Play, Region V Finalist |
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69 | 2017 | Aaron Scully’s Nah-Zhee | Ten-Minute Play, Region V Finalist, Planet Earth Competition | National Award, Planet Earth Competition |
68 | 2017 | Aaron Scully’s The Disappointments | NAPAT Award for Playwriting Excellence Region V Nominee |
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67 | 2017 | Melissa Jackson Burns’s The Day I Came to Life | Full-Length Play, Region V Finalist |
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66 | 2017 | Erin Nelson’s Space Race | Full-Length Play, Region V Finalist |
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65 | 2017 | Amy Taylor’s Reincarnation | Full-Length Play, Region V Finalist |
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64 | 2017 | Michael Bayler’s An Unbearable Story | Full-Length Play, Region V Finalist |
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63 | 2017 | Aaron Scully’s Roosevelt’s Ghosts | One-Act Play, Region V Finalist |
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62 | 2017 | Jennie Pardoe’s Seeking Addie | One-Act Play, Region V Finalist |
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61 | 2017 | Aaron Scully’s The Disappointments | NAPAT Award, Region V |
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60 | 2016 | Jamie Berry’s When the Battle’s Lost and Won |
| National Playwriting Intensive at the Kennedy Center |
59 | 2016 | Aaron Scully’s Sliding Into Home | Honorable Mention, Full-Length Play, Region V |
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58 | 2016 | Jenny Pardoe’s Ice in the Desert | Honorable Mention, Full-Length Play, Region V |
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57 | 2016 | Aaron Scully’s Doctor Scott | One-Act Play, Region V Finalist | National finalist for KCACTF) John Cauble Short Play Award |
56 | 2016 | Aaron Scully’s Firecracker Kid | Ten-Minute Play, Region V Finalist | National semi-finalist for KCACTF short play festival |
55 | 2015 | Aaron Scully’s Sleeping with Hitler | Invited One-Act, Region V |
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54 | 2015 | Bradley Stephenson Silent Spring | NAPAT Award, Region VI |
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53 | 2014 | Bradley Stephenson Silent Spring | Ten-Minute Play, Region V Finalist |
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52 | 2014 | Wesley Beckemeyer Eyes Up High | Ten-Minute Play, Region V Finalist |
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51 | 2014 | Emily Jane Nelson Any Rock, Any Stone | Ten-Minute Play, Region V Finalist |
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50 | 2013 | Milbre Burch, Washing Up | Ten-Minute Play, Region V Finalist | Ten-Minute Play, National Finalist |
49 | 2013 | Rick Diaz, Old Habits | Ten-Minute Play, Region V Finalist |
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48 | 2013 | Amanda Newman, Safelight | One-Act Play, Region V Runner-up |
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47 | 2013 | Paula Carter, Parenting On The Autism Spectrum | One-Act Play, Region V Runner-up |
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46 | 2013 | Milbre Burch, Brad Stephenson, Rachel Bauer, Carrie Winship, and Joshua Johnson MacNolia | One-Act Play, Region V Finalist |
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45 | 2012 | David Marcia, Slam Dog and Razor Girl | Ten-Minute Play Alternate |
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44 | 2012 | Kevin McFillen, Liddy’s Way | Ten-Minute Play Alternate |
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43 | 2012 | Hannah Baxter, Dye | Ten-Minute Play Finalist |
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42 | 2012 | Amanda Newman, The Lost Slipper | One Act Play Festival |
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41 | 2012 | Kevin McFillen, Subtraction | One Act Play Festival | John Cauble One-Act Play National Semi-Finalist |
40 | 2012 | Amanda Newman, The Lost Slipper | One Act Play Festival | John Cauble One-Act Play National Finalist |
39 | 2011 | Teresa Stankiewicz, The Split Branches of Terebinth | One Act Play Alternate |
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38 | 2011 | Paige Sommerer, Picture Perfect | One Act Play Alternate |
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37 | 2011 | Fonzie Geary, At the Races | One Act Play Alternate |
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36 | 2011 | Teresa Stankiewicz, 5 Eggs Left | Ten-Minute Play Alternate |
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35 | 2011 | Matt Fotis, Book of Adam |
| Mark Twain Comedy Award |
34 | 2011 | Matt Fotis, Nights on the Couch | One Act Play Festival | John Cauble One-Act Play National Finalist |
33 | 2011 | Matt Fotis, 58 & 59 | Ten-Minute Play Finalist | Ten-Minute Play Finalist |
32 | 2011 | Tyler Walton, Fallen | Ten-Minute Play Finalist |
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31 | 2010 | Dannah Moore, Day Drive | One Act Play Festival | One Act National Semi-Finalist |
30 | 2010 | Andy Pierce Maggie’s Song | Ten-Minute Play Alternate |
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29 | 2010 | Amanda Newman, The Fence | Ten-Minute Play Alternate |
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28 | 2010 | Fonzie Geary, An Old Car | Ten-Minute Play Finalist |
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27 | 2010 | Dannah Moore, Post-Secret | Ten-Minute Play Finalist | Ten-Minute Semi-Finalist |
26 | 2010 | Steve Robertson, The Day of Years | Ten-Minute Play Finalist |
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25 | 2009 | Jessica Huang's Mermaids | Ten-Minute Play Finalist | Ten-Minute Play National Finalist |
24 | 2009 | Robert AuFrance's Tag Team | David Mark Cohen Award |
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23 | 2009 | Mary Barile's Irish Rogue | David Mark Cohen Award |
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22 | 2008 | Fonzie Geary's Common Market | Ten-Minute Play Festival |
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21 | 2008 | Tearrance Chisholm's Niggerville |
| John Cauble Short Play Finalist, KCACTF Playwrights Intensive Scholarship |
20 | 2007 | Adam Boughton's Boys | Ten-Minute Play Festival |
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19 | 2007 | Mary Barile's The Keening | Ten-Minute Play Festival |
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18 | 2007 | Justin Hofstetter's Twelfth Step | One Act Play Festival |
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17 | 2006 | Robert Wells | 24-Hour Play Festival |
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16 | 2006 | Adam Best | 24-Hour Play Festival |
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15 | 2006 | Liz Fornango | 24-Hour Play Festival |
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14 | 2006 | Kevin McFillen’s Forbidden Fruit | One-Act Play Festival |
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13 | 2006 | Alex Yalen's Retribution | Ten-Minute Play Festival |
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12 | 2005 | Joshua Hartnett | 24-Hour Play Festival |
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11 | 2005 | David Kilpatrick's I Promise | Ten-Minute Play Festival |
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10 | 2005 | Mary Barile's The Hollow | Ten-Minute Play Festival | National Ten-Minute Play Festival |
9 | 2004 | Matthew Newlin's The Truth Game | Ten-Minute Play Festival |
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8 | 2004 | Erin McHugh's Film Explosure | Ten-Minute Play Festival |
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7 | 2003 | David White's Ain't Nothin Quick 'n Easy (Grad Student) |
| Mark Twain Comedy Award |
6 | 2003 | Jamie Lindemann's Wild West Paper Route | Ten-Minute Play Festival | Ten-Minute National Semi-Finalist |
5 | 2002 | Matt Lescher's Grease Me Up | Ten-Minute Play Festival |
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4 | 2001 | Kate Berneking Kogut's Assumption #1: Truckers (Grad Student) | Ten-Minute Play Festival | Ten-Minute National Semi-Finalist |
3 | 2000 | Robert AuFrance's Horsefly Summer | Ten-Minute Play Festival | Ten-Minute National Semi-Finalist |
2 | 1999 | Jeff Carrillo's Party Favors | Ten-Minute Play Festival | Ten-Minute Play Festival |
1 | 1999 | Kate Sinnett's Obscenity | Ten-Minute Play Festival |
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| TOTALS | 106 Regional Awards | 29 National Awards | |