All VPSI readings are open to the public and free of charge.
Come listen to a brand new play or screenplay and share your reactions with the author.
Catch a glimpse of the creative process, join the conversation!

The Virginia Playwrights and Screenwriters Initiative (VPSI) is a part of the Hamner Theater’s continuing mission to foster new works for the stage, specifically those by Virginia playwrights & screenwriters.

VPSI provides a venue for the writer to workshop, rewrite and rehearse a new script with a company of experienced actors, a director and a dramaturg. The author participates in a process of readings, rehearsal and discussions with cast, director and dramaturg, culminating in a public staged reading. Readings are followed by a discussion, which is the payoff for the playwright or screenwriter.

We are looking for promising but unfinished scripts by playwrights and screenwriters who are eager to revise and finish their scripts with the helpful input of directors and actors.

Questions? Write to us, at info (at) thehamnertheater.com or Virginia Playwrights & Screenwriters Initiative, Hamner Theater, P.O. Box 106, Nellysford, Virginia 22958. Or, use our contact form.

VPSI is made possible in part by grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the BAMA Fund.

NEWS: VPI is now VPSI, the Virginia Playwrights and Screenwriters Initiative!
We have expanded our script development process to include screenwriters.

Rose Harper, Kevin O’Donnell
in The Grove at Illium by Jane Ann Crum

Virginia Playwrights & Screenwriters Initiative

More information about the Playwrights

VPSI Plays & Screenplays, 2008 – present
Revelations by Ryan Wender
The Tragedy of John Wilkes Booth by William Shakespeare by Chris Gavaler
Therapy, The Musical by Phyllis Koch-Sheras
Red,White,Blue & Black by Peter Gunter
The Viennese Patient by Mark Edmundson
The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen, adaptation by Doug Grissom
Gabriel by Peter Coy
Blackout by William Howard Rough
All is Always Now by Robert Wray
Slow Instructions by Roy Robbins
Nobody’s Wife by Cindy Dlugolecki
The Grove at Illium by Jane Ann Crum
Riddle Me, Riddle Me by Mike Mulvihill and Charmi Neeley
A Woman of Consequence by Jean Klein
Gloryway by Jonas Collins
Presence, by Chris Van Cleave
Untitled, by Rick Steeves
The Secret Rain, by Robert Wray
Whatchamacallits, by Rick Hite
James Dean & the Devil, by Rosary Hartel O’Neill
Unreasonable Possession, by Jean Klein
The Jefferson Jewel Murders, by Bob Crawford

VPSI Summer Conference, 2010

Ocean View Odyssey by Robert Wray
Commedia Profana by John Lawson
The Valley of Argos by Brent Cirves
The first warm day of spring by Peter Coy
La Fornarina by Aurora Mateos, translated by Rick Hite
A Christmas Carol by Clinton A. Johnston

Earl Hamner Playwrights Conference, 2007

A Shadow of Honor by Peter Coy
Love and Whiskey by Allyson Currin
Miraculus by Joel Jones
Gap by Carol Lashof
The Angel's Suicide by Aurora Mateos, translation by Rick Hite
Solstice by JJ Neelley
A Discourse of Folly by Stephen Sossaman
This Perfect World by Chris Stezin
Farewell by John Walch

Earl Hamner Playwrights Conference, 2006

A Necessary Madness by Peter Coy
The War Monologues by Mark Edmundson
Am I Black Enough Yet? by Clinton Johnston
Floating Girl by Joel Jones
Drunk Like Water by Kathryn Stolzenbach
Quartet by Richard Washer
The Portable Henry Hobbs by Robert Wray
Father Frances by Tom Ziegler