About Playwrights @ Work (P@W)

Playwrights @ Work is a unique group within The Village Players that promotes play writing among its members. The group meets monthly to provide support, feedback, encouragement and direction to fellow playwrights. Throughout the year, P@W presents staged readings, and annually the group selects and premieres four original one-act plays from among its members in a Festival every July. If you are a budding playwright or wish to help read and give feedback on new scripts please email us today and we’ll let you know when our next meeting takes place.

Upcoming Events

Annual One Act Festival – SUMMER 2024 DATE TBA

Playwrights @ Work in affiliation with Birmingham Village Players present their annual One Act Festival: four fully produced original one act plays by members of Playwrights @ Work. This is a unique event put on each year featuring the premiers of fun, original and entertaining plays. Tickets are general admission for $10 and will go on sale in June.

Fall Shorts & Sweets – Save the Date – Saturday, October 7, 2023

Shorts & Sweets is typically six (6) short ten-minute plays that will be performed as staged readings (script in hand with some basic blocking) where the playwrights get direct feedback from the audience.  This is accomplished through interactive questions with the audience after each play as well as collecting paper surveys at the completion of the event (if you wish to remain anonymous). This event is free but we highly encourage donations at the door.

A Brief History of P@W

Playwrights @ Work (P@W) was founded in 2002 by Thomas Astin, John Reddy, Barbara Schmitt and Myron Stein. P@W is a playwriting critique group whose mission is to foster the writing, development and production of professional quality plays of its members. The group meets regularly to read works in progress and give each other feedback on how to improve their scripts and make them production-worthy.

In 2004 they started producing staged readings and in 2005 they put on their first production (off-book) of One Acts. They performed one or two nights of staged readings a year and beginning in October of 2010 they held their first Shorts & Sweets, which they’ve continued to hold every year. In September of 2020, due to the pandemic, they held their first Playwrights In The Park event (thanks to our friends at Nativity Episcopal Church) and returned to Village Players the following spring in May of 2021 to a crowd of 200 patrons. This year, 2023, marks their 21st year in existence and they continue to meet at least twice a month to read and develop plays.