New Play Festival | January 8 – January 18, 2026
Come celebrate the new year with an exciting series of groundbreaking new plays! Not only will you experience the performances, but you’ll also have the opportunity to engage with the playwrights about their creative process, share your insights with the creative team, and contribute to building these new stories from the script up.
2026 New Play Festival LINEUP
SPOTLIGHT PRODUCTION
Landscape, with Color
By Jeanette Brown
Partnership with Knox Heritage
Directed by David Ratliff
Historic Westwood
January 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17 at 8pm
January 10, 11, 17, 18 at 3pm
In a Southern art studio at the edge of modernity, a talented painter returns home to claim her place in a male-dominated art guild, challenging tradition, stirring old ghosts, and discovering that the act of creation can be the most radical form of defiance.
Limited Seating. Tickets will not be sold at the door.
STAGED READINGS
THE POLDERS
by Alex Drinnen
Facilitated by Andrew Hastings
Dramaturgy by Harrison Young
Clarence Brown LAB Theatre
Saturday, January 10 at 7pm
Sunday, January 18 at 2pm
As an island nation faces their destruction through climate change, they meet with an eccentric billionaire who promises them salvation. However, what starts as an absurd pitch soon turns into a fight for the very nature of the island itself, its culture, and its place on the global stage.
POTENTIAL
by Emily Pope
Facilitated by Madison M. Mansouri
Dramaturgy by Katie Myers
Clarence Brown LAB Theatre
Friday, January 9 at 7pm
Saturday, January 17 at 7pm
As two best friends prepare to leave for a prestigious teaching program abroad, their group of tightly-knit recent college graduates reunites for one last day of packing and reflection. But as emotions surface and futures collide, it becomes clear the real baggage isn’t in the boxes.
A SAD VAMPIRE
By Aleah Vassell
Facilitated by H. Caitlin Corbitt
Dramaturgy by Natalie Graham
Clarence Brown LAB Theatre
Sunday, January 11 at 2pm
Friday, January 16 at 7pm
When Michelle, a down-on-her-luck vampire, seeks solace in a neighborhood Applebee’s on Halloween night, she is forced to face her demons (or should I say her ghost ex-boyfriend and his new werewolf girlfriend) in this biting dark comedy about identity and survival.
THEATER OF OPERATIONS
By Craig Smith
Facilitated by Barry Wallace
Addison’s Bookstore
Tuesday, January 6 at 7pm
On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, three generations of a military family reunite for a backyard cookout where traumas resurface as they face what war has taken and what it has left behind.
AUDIENCE WANTED
By Sherridan Smee
Facilitated by Christina Sayer
Addison’s Bookstore
Wednesday, January 7 at 7pm
Donna might be the only living comedian to survive a nuclear war, and she’s on a desperately funny mission to find her audience and prove that someone out there is still listening..
PAINTER
By Derek Davidson
Facilitated by JP Schuffman
Addison’s Bookstore
Tuesday, January 13 at 7pm
Mike loves nature; his daughter Brea does not. During one last visit to their secluded family cabin, Mike is forced to ask: if he can’t save his daughter, how can he save the world he loves?
Shrinking Violet
by Gabriella Runnels
Facilitated by H. Caitlin Corbitt
Addison’s Bookstore
Wednesday, January 14 at 7pm
In a small Appalachian town, three misfits become entangled in a web of obsession and buried secrets, leading to a tragedy as haunting as the Shakespearean play they are rehearsing.
FREE COMMUNITY EVENTS
Four Steps Foward
Partnership with Next Rung Productions
Clarence Brown LAB Theatre
Thursday, January 15 at 7pm
Four Steps Forward is a fast-moving showcase of brand-new monologues written over four days, then handed to actors to read sight unseen. Each writer also spotlights a local non-profit that has impacted them, creating an evening rooted in creativity and community. The result is a unique blend of fresh writing, spontaneous performance, and heartfelt advocacy that highlights the voices and values of East Tennessee artists.
Thank You to our Partners & Sponsors
Julie Howard
Nancy Sharp Voith & Kenneth Stark
Liz Stowers
