The Play Production Workshop is for playwrights ready to step from the page to the stage.
This program is designed as an affordable, lower-end production path, stripped of unnecessary expense but rich in the essentials of great theatre. No elaborate sets. Just the heartbeat of live performance: talented actors, great direction, lights, sound, and the play you’ve crafted brought to life.
At Manhattan Rep, we know a script isn’t truly complete until it meets an audience. A play is a live emotional event. It breathes only when spoken aloud, when characters struggle in real time, when an audience leans in and feels like they are actually on stage with your characters.
A workshop production gives you the chance to learn how your play moves an audience when staged, directed, and embodied by actors.
It’s a game-changer.
What you’ll receive in the Play Production Workshop:
A professionally staged workshop production of your play in New York City.
Casting and directorial support to ensure your story is brought to life with clarity and skill.
Sound and lighting design that enhances without overshadowing, keeping the focus on the action of the play and the performances.
Development guidance from Manhattan Rep (1 Hour Zoom) the week after the workshop, to help you to continue to shape and strengthen your play.
The most important element of all: a live audience to react, respond, and reflect your work back to you.
Why a workshop production?
Because a play isn’t complete until it meets an audience.
For many playwrights, the scariest and most important step is sharing the work live. That’s why we created this program.
Manhattan Rep's most successful, and critically acclaimed play was Rawshock by Rita Lewis, which was developed over 4 years, with multiple script reviews, and a workshop production, before it's amazing run last fall. The reason we were picked for Theaterscene.org's 10 Best List for 2024, with Broadway plays, was because we developed Rawshock passionately over time.
If you’ve dreamed of producing your own play but felt overwhelmed by cost and scale, this is the path forward.
The Play Production Workshop makes it possible and practical to see your work brought to life in New York City.
Productions consist of 3 performances in a theatre in Midtown Manhattan.
The workshop opens on a Friday night and then there are two shows on Saturday, 3 pm and 7 pm.
Manhattan Rep handles everything involved with bringing this Workshop production to life: theatre rental, casting, insurance, staff, furniture, sound, and light design.
Productions run between $10,000 and $12,000 depending on production elements and length of the play.
If you are serious about funding a workshop of your play in New York City, please fill out the application below.
Experience your play in front of a live audience in New York City.
Derek Ruhlandt, Florence Pape, Dave Silberger, Riley B. Donahue, Danny McWilliams, Martin Fisher in The Laugh Supper by Leonard Ryzman
Anthony J. Ribustello & Ken Wolf in CONVERSATIONS WITH DOG by Ken Wolf
Chelsea Clark and Dave Silberger in He’s Your Daddy by Mike Zielinski