Island Theatre is piloting a new program to serve playwrights developing new full-length work. Rough Drafts offers playwrights, at any appropriate stage of a play's development, the chance to hear their work, rehearsed and presented as a reading before a live audience.

Rough Drafts is not an extension of our Ten-Minute Play Festival, and a reading is not an audition for production. We have no expectation of mounting full productions. There is no deadline, no submission window, and no jury. Every project is a one-off, shaped around the play and the playwright.

For our initial pilot, readings will most likely be presented in one of our Library Series slots at the Bainbridge Island Public Library.

How it works

1. Submit your play to ITRD@islandtheatre.org. Please include: your script (PDF preferred), a brief synopsis, where the play is in its development, and what kind of help you're hoping for.

2. We read it. We can't commit to a particular timeframe, but we will read your play and consider whether the project is well aligned with our ability to help dramaturgically. And whether we can find the right director/dramaturg and the resources to present a reading.

3. We'll be in touch. Either to pass on the project, or to talk about how we might move forward together.

4. If we move forward. An initial conversation with your director/dramaturg (alignment, feedback, goals, possibly an initial edit) → set a date and venue → cast and rehearse → the reading itself, followed, if you wish, by an audience feedback session facilitated by the director/dramaturg.

Your play stays yours. With your agreement, we'd like to invite representatives of other area theatres to attend the reading. Island Theatre holds no option or right to produce your play. We ask only that any subsequent production include an unobtrusive credit in the program.