Title Wave

The New Works Festival Returns in June!

Title Wave: New Works Festival at Bay Street Theater showcases four new plays currently in development, with a focus on staged readings, talkbacks, and critical discussion. The festival is a platform for emerging playwrights and a chance for audiences to experience cutting-edge theater.

Questions may be directed to the Literary Manager, Hope Villanueva, at LitManager@BayStreet.org

We are no longer accepting submissions this year.

2025 Finalists

Congratulations to the finalists in the 2025 New Works Festival

how it feels to fall from the sky

by Dominic Finocchiaro

After witnessing a woman plummet from the sky, five strangers in New York form a support group to process what they have seen. A melancholic dramedy about loneliness, loss, and the unending possibility of salvation inside human connection.

MAID in America

by Erin Gruodis-Gimbel

Cassandra doesn’t want to die, but it sure looks like her doctor wishes she would. When her insurance company stops covering the only medication that has given her any relief, she is presented with a new option for care- take advantage of the freshly expanded physician assisted suicide law.

You Should Be So Lucky

by Alyssa Haddad-Chin

Poh Poh teaches her granddaughter, Jenny, to make dumplings for the Lunar New Year in her Chinatown apartment. As Jenny learns more about her culture, history, and family, she discovers that there are some secrets Poh Poh won’t share, and the changing neighborhood isn’t leaving space for them.

DFR

by Heesun Hwang

Having one of the lowest birth rates in the world, it isn’t uncommon for many Koreans today to consider just how many will remain in the future. Well, the future is here. And it’s not great. Only two (alleged) Koreans have been discovered on Earth after The End, are tasked by the makeshift government, CO-OP, in a last-ditch project to repopulate the entire Korean race.

UX

by Jason Gray Platt

A social media giant attempts to develop virtual reality programs for sensitivity training to advance social justice. Once the project begins, however, the idea quickly gets out of hand, and it becomes clear that even the very best of intentions can be used to amplify the very worst instincts.

The Cucuy Will Find You

by Jaymes Sanchez

When the Cucuy, a child-eating boogey-man from Mexican folklore, appears on the doorstep of an ambitious young doctor, he must prove that he is a good to avoid being eaten. But even if he succeeds, the effort may still consume him.

The Man in the Sukkah

by Deborah Yarchun

A married couple takes in a defiant teenage foster daughter who insists on living in a Sukkah (a temporary hut used during the Jewish festival of Sukkot). When a mysterious man appears in her Sukkah, buried secrets unravel, forcing them to confront intergenerational trauma and a haunting question: can they overcome the downward pull of history and their troubled upbringings to become good parents?

Ajax

by Habib Yazdi

It’s a hot summer in August, 1953, when a clean-cut American arrives at a peaceful villa in North Tehran. Kambiz, the villa’s gardener and pool boy, wonders if the new guest may be his ticket to a better life. As their friendship deepens, Kambiz finds himself entangled with the Shah of Iran and the country’s elected prime minister. How will it end? Only the pool knows…

Finalists from Previous Years

Below is a list of past Title Wave finalists.

2024

THE ORDEAL OF WATER
by Stephanie Alison Walker
directed by Jen Wineman

POLAR BEARS, BLACK BOYS & PRAIRIE FRINGED ORCHIDS
by Vincent Terrell Durham
directed by Kimilie Howard

DUTCH MASTER: A MUSICAL
music and lyrics by Jeffrey Stock
book by Marc Acito
directed by Will Pomerantz

HOUSE OF INDIA
by Deepak Kumar
directed by Zi Alikhan

2023

ANOTHER LOVELY DAY
by Leslie Ayvazian
directed by Leslie Ayvazian

COME AGAIN
by Lisa Feriend
directed by Sofia Ubilla

WHAT I KNOW, NOW
by and starring Julia Motyka
directed by John Leonard Thompson

Produced on the Bay Street Mainstage as part of the Summer Season 2023

YOU HAVE TO PROMISE
by Audrey Lang
directed by Blayze Teicher

2022

DOUBLE HELIX
a musical by Madeline Myers
directed by Scott Schwartz

Produced on the Bay Street Mainstage as part of the Summer Season 2023

ATACAMA
by Augusto Fredrico Amador
directed by José Zayas

ONE-MAN TITANIC
book by Scott Rothman
music by Joe Kinosian
lyrics by Kellen Blair
directed by Laura Brandel

ZERO STATE
by Allison Moon
directed by Jen Wineman

2021

BETWEEN/TIME 
by Dane Figueroa Edidi
directed by Danielle Drakes

TENT REVIVAL
by Majkin Holmquist
directed by Hope Villaneuva

PRINCESS CLARA OF LOISAIDA
by Matthew Barbot
directed by Teddy Bergman

THE RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW
by Peter Macklin
directed by Kyle Donnelly

2020

No Events

2019

MY LORD, WHAT A NIGHT
by Deborah Brevoort
directed by Kel Haney

Has had multiple regional productions since debuting at the New Works Festival, including Ford’s Theater, Orlando Shakespeare and The Contemporary American Theater Festival

WALDEN
by Amy Berryman
directed by Mia Walker
Produced on the West End and is be a part of Second Stage’s Fall 2024 season

DELMONICO
by Jack Canfora
directed by Will Pomerantz

BLISS
a new musical by Emma Lively & Tyler Beattie
directed by Sheryl Kaller

2018

MEDEA
(A rock musical adaptation)
by The Kilbanes
directed by Reggie D. White

A SEAGULL IN THE HAMPTONS
by Emily Mann
directed by Stephen Hamilton

THE PROMPTER
by Wade Dooley
directed by Scott Schwartz

Produced on the Bay Street Mainstage as part of the Summer Season 2019

EIGHT NIGHTS
by Jennifer Maisel
directed by Will Pomerantz

Has been produced on stages in LA and Detroit since debuting at the New Works Festival

2017

MOLY SWEENEY
based on the play by Brian Friel
book by Eric Ulloa
music and lyrics by Caleb Damschroder
directed by Scott Schwartz

THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOW
by Y. York
directed by Will Pomerantz

THOMAS MURPHY
by Roger Rosenblatt
directed by Scott Schwartz

THE COCKTAIL PARTY EFFECT
by Scooter Pietsch
directed by Carolynn Richer

2016

THE ROOMMATE
by Jen Silverman
directed by Mike Donahue

THE MAN IN THE CEILING
book by Jules Feiffer
music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa
directed by Jeffrey Seller

Produced on the Bay Street Mainstage as part of the Summer Season 2017

FROM SHIP TO SHAPE
by Walker Vreeland
directed by Scott Schwartz

COMMUNITY
by Stephen Kaplan
directed by Rob Urbinati

2015

A DELICATE SHIP
by Anna Zeigler
directed by Jeremy Webb

Has had multiple regional productions since debuting at the New Works Festival

THE GREEN HEART: A MUSICAL COMEDY
based on the short story by Jack Richie
book by Charles Busch
music and lyrics by Rusty McGee
directed by Carl Andress

PLANE PLAY
by Julia Brownell
directed by Michelle Tattenbaum

2014

THE ORCHARD PLAY
by P. Seth Bauer
directed by Will Pomerantz

THE MAY QUEEN
by Molly Smith Metzler
directed by Vivienne Benesch