IAMA New Works Festival
IAMA Theatre Company’s New Works Festival is our annual festival of new plays and musicals that allows playwrights to hear their developing work in a public forum. Each year, new plays are workshopped and presented over the course of two weekends at our home at the Atwater Village Theatre. Criteria for invitation into the festival is the play must have not previously had a World, West Coast, or Los Angeles Premiere production. Plays are also selected for their artistic merit and their alignment with our mission, vision, and values, with an emphasis on bold storytelling and compelling narratives that accurately reflect the diverse spectrum of human experience in contemporary America. Deliberate care is taken throughout the festival to create a safe, but creatively rigorous space for artists to explore, experiment, challenge, question, and thrive.
IAMA's New Works Festival and the new voices it helps to nurture are at the core of our mission. Since 2018, the festival has emerged as IAMA’s leading development and community engagement program, and provides us the first step in curating new plays of artistic excellence that will be considered for future productions. The festival invites our local community into the creative process and welcomes social gatherings and discussions following each play presentation, sparking important dialogue, connection, and creative exchange, both on and off the stage. New work developed during the festival has gone on to full, World Premiere productions not only at IAMA, but at other theaters in Los Angeles and across the country.
IAMA believes that the power of theatre lies in its collective experience, and that in the development of a new play, the opportunity to have an audience witness the work is crucial to its progress. Our longstanding commitment to producing new plays and musicals begins with cultivating new writers and offering them an inclusive platform to showcase their stories. Our New Works Festival is essential in supporting the theatre artists of today, and vital in securing the future of American theatre for generations to come.
2023
Cinderellas of America by Kemiyondo Coutinho, directed by Kimberly Hébert
Amputations, by Jan Rosenberg, directed by Rebecca Wear
The Wronged Party, commissioned by IAMA Theatre Company, by June Carryl, directed by H. Adam Harris
About Me: by Kenneth Lin, directed by Eli Gonda
The Truth Game by Ben Lear, directed by Kate Sullivan
Trauma Play by Abigail Miller, directed by Diana Wyenn
2022
First Comes The Egg by Taryn Fixel, directed by Kaily Smith
Help! by Adriana Santos, directed by Celia Mandela Rivera
Oladele or The Forgotten Song by Kacie Rogers*, directed by Nell Teare
Rotana - Alien of Extraordinary Ability by Rotana Tarabzouni, directed by Zhailon Levingston
Cannabis Passover by Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, directed by Stefanie Black
Arrowhead, commissioned by IAMA Theatre Company, by Catya McMullen, directed by Jenna Worsham
2021
Lifeline by Robert Axelrod, directed by Keith Powell
Eddie's Love by Larry Powell, directed by Roger Q. Mason
Gusher! by Jan Rosenberg, directed by Hannah Wolf
The Very Best People by John Lavelle, directed by Okieriete Onaodowan
The Play My Family Can't Know Exists by Melissa Jane Osborne, directed by Michelle Bossy
Invisible by Douglas Lyons, directed by Bryan Keith
2020
Beta written by Christian Durso, directed by Katie Lindsay
In His Hands by Benjamin Benne, directed by Kareem Fahmy
Iseult et Tristan by Pia Wilson, directed by Susan Dalian
#galaseason by Geraldine Inoa, directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed
This Party Sucks by Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, directed by Kate Sullivan
Assholes in Gas Stations by Catya McMullen, with music by Scott Klopfenstein, directed by Jenna Worsham
2019
The Elephants by Mat Smart, directed by Jaime Castenada
All the Stupid Bitches, written and directed by Morgan Gould
You’re Crazy (a play with Karaoke) by Steph Del Rosso, directed by Annie Tippe
Model Minority by Chloé Hung, directed by Alana Dietze
Headwind by Adam Hunter Howard, directed by Michelle Bossy
The Evergreen, music and lyrics by Mathew Puckett, directed by Stefanie Black
2018
I Get Restless by Caroline V. McGraw, directed by Lindsay Allbaugh
Georgia Mertching is Dead by Catya McMullen, directed by Leslye Headland
Red Tide by Kevin Armento, directed by Katie Lindsay
The Sex Lives of Strangers by Erik Patterson, directed by Jennifer Chambers
Smile by Melissa Jane Osborne, directed by Michelle Bossy
For Which it Stands by Lee Edward Colton II, directed by Okieriete Onaodowan