Artist Workshop

Artistic Inquiries

At New York Theatre Workshop, we believe that theatre has the power to deepen empathy and spark wonder. It can help us better understand our world—and that’s exactly what we strive to do: through innovative productions, a dynamic developmental laboratory and empowering community engagement programs.

As we consider what work we have the capacity to develop and produce at NYTW, we think about both individual pieces and the conversation that sparked between pieces across a season or seasons. We call the animating questions that help guide our curation our Artistic Inquiries.

Those are:

• How does the piece expand empathy and upend expectations? 

• How is this piece in conversation with the particular moment in which we are living? 

• To what communities is this piece a meaningful invitation? 

• How is this piece pushing the art form forward? 

• How does this piece prioritize asking questions over offering answers? 

• How does the form support the content and storytelling? 

• How does this piece give life to the wide range of human experience? (e.g. intimate vs. epic, timeless vs. contemporary, joy vs. desperation) 

• What is essential about telling this story live with collaborators and audiences? 
• How does the piece illuminate a timeless, elemental, and/or communal human experience? 

While not all of these questions may be in consideration for every play, they reflect how we approach curating work for production and development.  

Submit Your Work

Our team is driven by a desire to build lasting relationships with artists, which is why we maintain regular communication with our extraordinary Usual Suspects, as well as other established and early career artists—with whom we have long-standing relationships. We accept agent submissions, and attend festivals, readings, and productions nationally and internationally to engage with new work.

If your work does not come to us through those avenues, we encourage you to:

• Invite us to see your work by reaching out to us at invitations@nytw.org
• Introduce us to your work through this form. You can be the author of this work or it can be a piece that you’re associated with that you want to bring NYTW’s attention to. This helps us familiarize ourselves with your artistic passions and the potential for collaboration. 

As you consider projects to submit, we encourage you to review our artistic inquiries above, as well as explore our our history and production archives to gain a deeper understanding of our work. Unless you’ve had prior discussions with a member of our artistic staff, please note that submissions will only be solicited if submitted through this form.

Note: Full scripts should not be submitted unless explicitly requested. 

Response Timeline and Submission Guidelines

Due to the high volume of submissions we receive, our team will reach out to request full materials only if your project aligns with some of our artistic inquiries and we’re interested in reading further. We read every submission thoroughly and, while we cannot support every project, we are grateful for the opportunity to get to know you and your artistry.