Introducing Creative Foundry: A New Home for Local Artists, New Work and New Ideas
The Premiere Playhouse is excited to announce Creative Foundry, a new year-round initiative dedicated to developing local artists, locally generated stories and new theatrical ideas. Creative Foundry brings three of TPP’s existing creative development programs together under one umbrella:
New Works: The Premiere Premieres
New Visions: The Passion Projects
New Voices: Cabaret Catalyst
While each discipline serves a different kind of artist and creative project, all three will now operate through a shared framework for submission, review, development, mentorship, and producing.
A Different Way to Develop New Work
Creative Foundry was created around a simple realization: Not every project needs the same process. A new play may need a reading. A musical may need a workshop. A director may have a compelling concept that needs producing mentorship. A performer may have a collection of songs that could become a cabaret with the right creative guidance. These projects shouldn’t have to conform to a single production model simply because that is the model available.
Creative Foundry allows The Premiere Playhouse to evaluate each project on its own terms and determine what kind of support will best serve the artist and the work. That might mean a reading, workshop, coaching session, developmental presentation, cabaret, immersive experience, staged production — or simply additional time and mentorship before determining what comes next. The goal is process over product. Rather than asking, “Can we produce this?”, Creative Foundry encourages us to ask, “What does this artist and this project need to become what it wants to be?”
Three Creative Pathways
New Works: The Premiere Premieres
The Premiere Premieres supports playwrights, composers, lyricists, and creative teams developing original theatrical works through submissions, commissions, readings, workshops, and developmental productions.
New Visions: The Passion Projects
The Passion Projects supports emerging directors, producers, and artistic leaders who have a compelling theatrical vision they want to bring to life. Projects may explore immersive storytelling, unconventional venues, public-domain adaptations, innovative audience experiences, or other approaches that don’t necessarily fit a traditional theatre model.
New Voices: Cabaret Catalyst
Cabaret Catalyst supports performers in developing artist-driven cabarets and musical storytelling experiences that celebrate their individual voices. Through repertoire selection, creative consultation, performance development, production planning, and presentation opportunities, artists can transform a collection of ideas into a cohesive artistic experience.
More Than New Work
Creative Foundry is only one part of TPP’s broader commitment to artist development. We want The Premiere Playhouse to be a place where artists can find support before, during, and beyond a production. That includes our professional development services through Studio Memberships / Training, as well as individualized services such as:
- Repertoire selection
- Audition preparation
- Self-tape production
- Creative headshots
- Performance coaching
- Skills training
- Artist mentorship
- And other individualized creative resources
An artist doesn’t have to arrive with a finished script or production concept to find a place at TPP. Maybe you have an idea. Maybe you have a song. Maybe you’re preparing for an audition. Maybe you’re trying to figure out what comes next. Maybe you simply want to become a better artist. Creative Foundry is part of our commitment to helping you get there.
Submissions Open September 18, 2026
Submissions for Season 24 Creative Foundry programming open Friday, September 18, 2026, with a soft deadline of Friday, October 30, 2026. Submitted projects may be considered for development and/or production within the January–June 2027 timeframe. Projects will be evaluated individually based on their artistic goals, readiness, scope, and developmental needs. There is no expectation that every project will follow the same path. That’s the point. Season 25 submissions will open in 2027.
Building a Creative Community
The Premiere Playhouse believes extraordinary theatre begins with extraordinary artists. Creative Foundry is an investment in those artists — and in the stories they want to tell. Our hope is to cultivate an environment where local artists and local stories can grow effectively, collaboratively, and sustainably, with access to the mentorship, resources, training, and producing support necessary to move an idea forward. We don’t know exactly what every project will become. And we don’t think we should. That’s what the Foundry is for.