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New Work Development Program
On March 31st, AMT Theater will host an evening of staged readings open to the public. Situated in the heart of Manhattan’s theater district, this is your chance to share your work with a community of dedicated theater enthusiasts.
Theme: Past. Present. Future.
As the nation celebrates its 250th year, we’re on the lookout for plays by new writers that probe America’s past, present, and future. We want to hear fresh viewpoints that examine untold stories of old, grapple with our current moment’s challenges, and imagine daring visions of what’s to come.
Key Details:
Submissions open on January 20th 2026 (9am)
Submission deadline on February February 17th 2026 (5pm)
Winners announced on February 27th 2026
Staged reading on March 31st 2026 at AMT Theater
Who we are looking for:
Submission is open to all writers with something to say! Our goal is to give writers the opportunity to hear their work read in a staged reading with a full cast of talented actors.
AMT began its New Work Development Program in 2022. We received over 130 scripts, and gave eight of them a reading on our off-broadway stage in 2023. Our reading series is a chance for playwrights to hear their play out loud, and also hear artists and audience’s initial response and feelings. This is crucial to developing a new play.
As the industry continues to recover from the pandemic, emerging and in process artistic opportunities are very limited, so we are prioritizing time and space to hear new voices and stories.
We are also presenting new work for our community of artists and neighbors. Our goal is to be a local theatrical home for artists and audiences in the same neighborhood as one of the global theatrical centers. We want to present plays that reflect the lives and stories of our audience members, and we want to include our audience's insights and feedback when choosing programming for our season. We are very excited to find and develop new work that is diverse in subjects, backgrounds, and experiences, and we hope the audiences will find stories that are not only entertaining, but represent their community.
We are looking forward to expanding our New Work Development Program, and offering more opportunities to playwrights and new stories this year.
Ocean Harris
New Work Development Interim Director
Harris, born in Westminster, UK, spent his early years in Sierra Leone before returning to England due to the civil war. Raised in South London, he attended Beth’s Grammar School for Boys in Kent and graduated from the University of Nottingham.
Ocean began his acting career with a role in Agatha Raisin (Sky/Acorn TV), subsequently featuring in The Capture (BBC/NBC), Feather Christmas (2024), and short films like World Fiction (2024), Immaculate Deception (2023) and Prey (2021).
He studied Stanislavsky under Brigid Panet at RADA in 2023 before moving to New York in 2024. He has since had lead roles in plays by Actors Studio luminaries Lyle Kessler (A Golden City, TNC), Diane Davis (Erasing Time, The Chain) and Vincent
Morano (A Thing With Feathers, AMT) as well as staged readings at the studio for lifetime members including Shareen Mitchell, Kathryn Grant, Kyle Mumford and Gino Dilorio.
With experiences across three continents - Africa, Europe, and now North America - Ocean remains captivated by the narratives that weave different cultures together and is dedicated to discovering emerging voices in New York's theater scene.
Jerry Slaff, playwright
Man oh man. I learned more about my play in 6 hours with Steve Ditmeyer than I did in all its previous productions and readings. He is a genius who brought out the humor in the piece without sacrificing the drama. My time with him was like an MFA program distilled into a day and a half. I know, as the initial reading, that Tony took a chance with the play, with me coming out of nowhere, but I was very impressed with him, with AMT's physical plant, with the cast he recruited for the play, and for the overall experience. I've been doing this for 40 years, and this was the best experience I've had.
Bill Kelly Jr., playwright
During a time when so many theaters are closing, having a vital, ongoing process of play readings is important. While readings are not obviously full productions, the process can give a taste of what might be to come. It makes the play feel real and warms the heart of the playwright who has labored over it.
Diego Lanao, playwright
AMT's New Works Program is crucial towards the development of the play. It's such an essential part of the creative's journey - be it as a playwright, actor or director. This program is meant for up and coming artists to hear their work out loud and continue developing it for further growth. The opportunity that AMT provides with allowing the creatives to further revise and workshop their piece is an amazing gift.
PREVIOUS READINGS
Peruse the previous excellent plays we have showcased in our New Works Development Program
