NEW WORKS | AMT Theater 2022

New Work Development Program

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.

Mimi Warnick

New Work Development Director

Mimi is a director and artist based in NYC. Mimi chose to study and pursue a career in theater because she has seen and experienced the transformative powers it can have on young people, audiences, and communities. She is very excited that AMT is providing a local theater home for the Midtown Manhattan community.

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.