The Pittsburgh New Works Festival has been dedicated to producing new plays from all over the world for 27 years! From comedy to drama and traditional to cutting edge, there's always something for everyone to love. Presented by 18 of the Pittsburgh region's theatre companies and top-notch acting talent from all corners of the region, New Works is something not to be missed!

Roosevelt’s Ghosts
by Aaron Scully

Warresnburg, MO
Produced by CCAC South Campus Theatre

On February 14th, 1884, Theodore Roosevelt suffered the loss of his mother and his wife within hours of each other. Legend has it that Roosevelt spent time in his study alone and when he came out he hardly ever spoke of his mother or wife again. This play explores one idea of what may have happened during that time in his study.

Aaron Scully is a playwright, director, actor, teacher and scholar. His plays have been seen in Washington DC, Seattle, Minneapolis, Des Moines and Columbia, MO. Most recently he was awarded an Outstanding Achievement in Dramatic Writing from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

Aaron writes about what he understands as certain truths which exist in the world. He uses his own experiences, his love of history and his love of theatre to create theatre which honest and theatrical.

The Pivot
by Seth Freeman

Pacific Palisades, CA
Produced by The Summer Company

In this very short play’s genre-bending structure, an apparently well-qualified job applicant simultaneously faces and doesn’t face unexpected obstacles.

Seth Freeman’s plays have been presented at over a hundred fifty theaters and festivals around the world. He has written for print (The New York Times, Southern Theatre Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, California Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, the Huffington Post, The Hill), screen and television, for which he created the series Lincoln Heights. He has received multiple Emmys, Writers Guild Awards, Golden Globes, Peabody, P.E.N., First Amendment, Christopher, Humanitas and numerous other honors for screenwriting, fiction writing and journalism. He contributes non-writing time to community and international organizations dealing with health care, education, the empowerment of women and human rights.

Doing Time
by Mary Poindexter McLaughlin

East Aurora, NY
Produced by The Theatre Factory

Confined in an undefined time and place, a young man attempts to write his “Book of Life” amidst the interruptions of an old man. Together, they argue about the significance of memory and the consequences of an undocumented life, ultimately helping each other learn the greatest lesson of all: the freedom of letting go.

Mary Poindexter McLaughlin holds a BA in English from Stanford University, where she was the recipient of Stanford’s Golden Grant Award for playwriting, and an MA in Theatre & Performance Studies from SUNY University at Buffalo. Her plays have been finalists in the Samuel French One-Act Festival and the Turnip Festival in NYC, and been performed by talented actors like Hamish Linklater and Frank Wood. Mary recently directed a reading of her play Returns at the Kavinoky Theatre in Buffalo, NY, wrote the first season of the tv web series Why I Murdered My Roommate, and was chosen by Road Less Traveled Productions Theatre to be one of their five Regional Residency Playwrights. A published poet and the creator of improviDance, she lives with her husband and three children in East Aurora, NY. Member: Dramatists Guild, SAG-AFTRA.