Supporting the creation of new work is the heart of the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.  To that end, PNWF has re-invented its staged readings to make them more valuable to playwrights.  We want to build a creative laboratory that gives the producing companies the flexibility to explore the scripts in everything from seated reading to full productions.  No piece of theatre is complete with an audience, though.  To help the playwrights continue to develop their work, we are inviting YOU to give feedback and ask questions at the end of the performances, while enjoying complimentary drinks and refreshments.

Wilderness Survival
by Hamilton Kreeger

Baltimore, MD
Produced by The Bobcat Players

An incident on a wilderness survival camp out brings secrets to light and forces difficult choices on those trying to uncover the truth.

Hamilton Kreeger is a lawyer and playwright living in Baltimore, Maryland. His play Sleeping Aide was a previous main stage production at the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.

Forerunners
by David Healey

Toronto, Ontario
Produced by Little Lake Theatre

Forerunners is a comedy that focuses on story telling and incorporates some of the folk tales from my home province of Nova Scotia. It takes place in Nova Scotia in the late 1960’s and it is non-traditional in the sense that it foregoes the usual advancement of the story through plot and instead the play is propelled forward by the use of relationship, character development and story telling. The play revolves around Donald and Jamie who compete to be the best story teller.

David Healey studied as an actor and improviser before turning to writing. His one man shows have played at numerous fringe festivals. His plays have been performed at the Bad Dog Short Play Festival, Toronto’s Short Short Play Festival and most recently at Unit 102’s Operation 24 in Toronto. His Flashman radio play series has run at Spadina Museum every December for the past 5 years.

Golden Land
by John Adams

Richmond Heights, MO
Produced by Prime Stage Theatre

Freddy and Emmameet on a front stoop of a tenement in a New York City’s lower east side, circa 1904. Freddy is a barber and innkeeper with a wife and a daughter. Emma is a reflective, seminal thinker and writer, a former sweatshop seamstress. Freddy intrudes on Emma’s moment of writing and forcing her to listen to stories about his life and success, as he prepares to return to Germany with his wife and newborn daughter…

John Adams was mentored by Carol Roper (award-winning writer and recipient of the Office for Advanced Drama Research Rockefeller Honorarium) and the Canadian novelist and short story writer Sandra Birdsell. John was awarded the Ontario College Graduate Certificate in creative writing from the Humber School for Writers. John is a founding member of the Writers Studio in San Diego, California and a Teacher Consultant with the National Writing Project. He currently teaches in a specialized certificate program in copy editing for the University of California, San Diego. He is currently a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. During the past summer, his full-length play In the Shadow of a Dream was staged during the New York City Midtown International Theatre Festival. MITF nominated awards included playwright, actor (Nick Jordan), director, and production design.