New Pages Program
Program Structure
New Pages playwrights commit to a two-year cohort experience.
During that time:
The cohort will meet twice each month on Zoom, with no meetings during the summer and start of Fall (July-September)
Each Zoom meeting will last approximately two hours, unless otherwise stated.
The cohort will gather twice each year in person in Philadelphia, PA.
New Pages is best suited for playwrights living throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, though playwrights outside of the tri-state area may also be considered.
Playwrights are expected to participate consistently in both the artistic work and the community of the cohort.
Our meetings will have a shared structure, but not every playwright will be asked to do the same thing. The exact schedule for meetings will be determined by the goals that we are working towards. In each meeting, we will use the time to check in, share discoveries, ask questions, talk through challenges, and stay connected to the work happening across the cohort.
From there, the meeting may open into small-group work. Playwrights might write, share pages, hear work aloud, meet with other cohort members, work through a particular artistic problem, or meet individually with the New Play Development Director. What happens during that time will be connected to what the playwright is actually trying to accomplish!
In this way, the structure is shared but the path through it is personal.
Your Goal
Every playwright will enter New Pages with a specific, actionable artistic goal.
That goal will serve as a starting place for conversations about what kinds of support might be useful throughout the program. Together, the playwright and New Play Development Director will continue to revisit the goal, identify useful next steps, and adjust the development process as the work changes.
Reaching your goal does not mean you have to wait for the two years to end.
If you are accepted to the cohort and you accomplish your original goal before completing the program, you may choose to:
establish a new artistic goal and continue working with the cohort; or
graduate early from New Pages and begin nurturing the work you have accomplished beyond the cohort.
Some examples of goals might be:
Complete a final draft of a script
Have one or more readings of a work in front of an audience
Connect with a theater for a chance at production
Establish a partnership with a director to champion your work
Decide on a playwright pathway for yourself
And anything else you might come up with!
What New Pages Offers
New Pages is meant to provide playwrights with sustained, structured, and supported work time, as well as community and artistic support.
Depending on the needs of the playwright and the work, that support may include:
peer conversation and feedback;
dramaturgical support;
opportunities to hear pages or full works aloud;
focused writing time;
conversations with directors, designers, or other artists when useful to the work;
staged reading opportunities;
artistic connections and community building;
and help identifying the next step for a play beyond the cohort.
Not every playwright will need every resource. Not every play needs the same development process. What Azuka can provide will change, but our commitment to helping you grow will not. The question we will return to is simple: What would be most useful to the writer and the work right now?
What We Ask of Playwrights
New Pages works best when its members are invested not only in their own goals, but in the people working alongside them.
Playwrights are asked to:
come to the program prepared to work toward a meaningful artistic goal;
attend cohort meetings consistently and communicate when circumstances make attendance difficult;
take responsibility for identifying what you need from the development process;
remain open to questions, experimentation, and the possibility that your goal may evolve;
contribute thoughtfully and generously when other playwrights invite the cohort into your work;
make room for different voices, experiences, artistic practices, and ways of working;
respect that the playwright ultimately decides what belongs in your work.
Some meetings may be full of conversation, pages, and ideas flying around the room. Others may mean putting your head down and spending an hour solving one stubborn problem. Both are valuable.
Where We Hope You Leave
New Pages is connected to Azuka’s long-standing commitment to new work, Philadelphia playwrights, and artist-centered development. The program, however, is not simply about producing more playscripts. It is about helping playwrights become more intentional about the artists you are becoming. New Pages playwrights will graduate to the Second Act community cohort of Azuka Theatre, joining a lifelong community of intentional artists.
By the end of your time in New Pages, we hope that you will leave knowing your voice more deeply, knowing what you want to say, and having a clearer sense of the community you have at your side.
You should leave with stronger work, certainly. But also with sharper questions, greater confidence in your own process, meaningful relationships with other artists, and a better understanding of what your work needs next… One goal, one conversation, one new page at a time.
Apply
Applications are NOW OPEN through December 31, 2026, and will be reviewed as they are received.