Design Overview and Festival Coordinators - New Plays Festival

The New Plays Festival is a repertory festival with two shows performing per week for 5-6 weeks. While this structure is most similar to producing within a theatre festival, such as the Fringe Festival, there are multiple ways to approach mounting each playwright's script depending on what the playwright wants to explore for their education. Productions in the past have included playwrights who choose to do full productions, staged readings, and workshop productions designed to hopefully move to a different venue in the near future or tour.

The rapid pace of the festival defines the overall scope of the design elements, with the following being the largest constraints to keep in mind:

  1. Changeovers: The entire physical production needs to be able to switch between the two shows in rep within 30 minutes in order to facilitate having both shows perform on the same day. This is particularly important for scenic design.
  2. Lighting Rep Plot: There is a very robust lighting rep plot for the festival. This plot cannot be changed or refocused, but can be supplemented with practicals and/or specials. Please see the Lighting Design Section for details.
  3. Storage: When off-stage, all scenic elements and props for the show must fit into an 8'x6' space in the theater shop next to the theatre. 

A strategy that can be very effective is for shows that are in rep to work closely with each other through the design process. If there are elements that can be shared, especially scenic elements, this can alleviate many changeover and storage related concerns.

Details about the scope for each particular design discipline can be found in each discipline's section.

It is quite common that shows in the New Plays Festival discover that they do not need to hire a specific designer for each design discipline. For example, a show may know that the lighting needed may consist of several overall looks for the scenes, but not many internal cues or practicals.  

To support this, each design discipline has a Festival Coordinator that can serve to help achieve the creative team's vision for that design element within a smaller scope if a dedicated designer is not brought on board. These Festival Coordinators are members of the production staff, and are very knowledgeable about what they do, many being designers in their own careers. If a designer is brought on board, the Festival Coordinators will support the show and the designer in their normal staff capacity.

It is generally recommended to take advantage of what the Festival Coordinators can offer the shows. Doing so can help significantly with budget, as well as provide focus to those design elements that require a dedicated designer.

Specific details about collaborating with the Festival Coordinators in lieu of a designer can be found in each design discipline's section.