Flashback Theater Co. (FbTC) seeks full-length work by playwrights with a Kentucky voice. Selections will be considered for workshop development in June 2025. FbTC will work with selected playwrights to determine short selections from their full length work to develop. Submissions must be received by 11:59pm EST on February 21st, 2025. Throughout the week of June 9th, 2025, mini workshops will be offered to up to three playwrights. The workshops held that week will culminate in a night of staged readings at a local Somerset, Kentucky venue on Friday, June 13th, 2025.
The Mini Workshops will consist of local acting talent wading into the process of new play development, beginning with a table reading of the selection from the full length works. Playwrights will be listening to and receiving feedback about their work and its effectiveness. Playwrights will assess their current draft and have an opportunity to edit their selection to bring it closer to being production ready. Throughout the workshop, Flashback’s Professional Training Ground team will consider all selections from participating playwrights in mini workshops and choose one to receive a full length workshop in 2026.
The mini workshops will take place in one hour segments during the week and will consist of one scene selections from full length works. The workshops will culminate in staged readings prior to the staged reading of a full work by our resident playwright on Friday evening.
Flashback Theater values the addition of new work to the theater canon, specifically works that speak to the experience of our region. The goal of New Play Development at FbTC is to facilitate a process where we can enhance works written by or with a Kentucky voice and establish a relationship where we produce regionally relevant new works. Our mission prioritizes development of new work, and many past workshop recipients have gone on to have their works fully produced as a part of FbTC’s Mainstage season!
What to Submit
Full Length Works
Three pieces will be selected for this process. From those three selected plays, we will work with the playwright to make a selection of scene/s from the full work to be workshopped and staged.
Mini workshops for the three selected plays will be scheduled throughout the week based on the playwright’s availability.
Submission Criteria
Please review the following information about our season programming goals before submitting. Note: your play need only meet one of the first two Kentucky based criteria.
Your play is Kentucky based.
We look for plays that are connected to our history or region in some way. Past productions that have met this criteria: And the Tide Shall Cover the Earth by Norma Cole, Last Train to Nibroc by Arlene Hutton.
Your play has a Kentucky voice.
We look for plays that relate a Kentucky perspective to the rest of the world. How does our community see the world? How does the world see our community? This can be in the form of a Kentucky character in a new place, an outsider coming to Kentucky, or perhaps some other expression of a Kentucky voice. Past Flashback productions that met this criteria: Brother Wolf by Laurelyn Dossett, Harriet Simpson Arnow’s The Dollmaker adapted by Betty Peterson, and Hazard County by Alison Moore.
Your play is formatted in a neat and readable way.
Your play is submitted as a PDF and is formatted neatly in a manner that easily translates to the stage.
How To Submit:
Email your work to [email protected]
Send the file as a PDF
Include a title page with your name, email, mobile phone number, and location
Please submit by 11:59pm EST on February 21th, 2025
Please note that submissions from playwrights who cannot attend the workshop will not be considered.
If you have any questions, please contact Bailey Patterson, Flashback’s Education Coordinator, at [email protected].
New Play Development History at Flashback Theater Co.
The American Parade by Steve Cleberg
Workshop Dates: May 30 – June 3, 2022
World Premiere at Flashback: July 21 – July 31, 2022
Mary: Her Story book and lyrics by Amber Frangos, Music by Maria McNeil
Workshopped over three years, 2018-2021
Workshop Dates: July 22-25, 2019 for book
August 5-9, 2019 for music
December 14, 2019 for the “Tell Him” scene – book & music.
October 5-8, 2020 for book & music, Public Reading held at 7 p.m. on Oct. 9, 2020
World Premiere at Flashback: May 2022
Making It Home by Jim Colgan
Workshop Dates: August 25-28, 2020
Get in The Game (formerly Leo: One Man’s Journey Through Breast Cancer) by Amber Frangos
Workshop Dates: 2018
Boats Against the Current by William H. McCann
Workshop Dates: July 16-20, 2018
World Premiere at Flashback: February – March 2019
Rosies: The Women Who Riveted The Nation by Amber Frangos
Workshop Dates: July 24-28, 2017
World Premiere at Flashback: May 2018
Dancing in the Dark by Stephanie Porter
Workshop Dates: July 18-22, 2016