Tennessee Stage Company's New Play Fest 2025: Building Stories from the Script Up

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

TUESDAY, JANUARY 6

7pm. Table Reading: Theatre of Operations by Craig Smith | Addison's Bookstore

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7

7pm. Table Reading: Audience Wanted by Sherridan Smee | Addison's Bookstore

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8

8pm. Landscape, With Color by Jeannette Brown | Historic Westwood

FRIDAY, JANUARY 9

7pm. Potential by Emily Pope | CBT LAB Theatre
8pm. Landscape, With Color by Jeannette Brown | Historic Westwood

SATURDAY, JANUARY 10

11am. Playwright's Brunch | Addison's Bookstore
3pm. Landscape, With Color by Jeannette Brown | Historic Westwood
7pm. The Polders by Alex Drinnen | CBT LAB Theatre
8pm. Landscape, With Color by Jeannette Brown | Historic Westwood

SUNDAY, JANUARY 11

2pm. A Sad Vampire by Aleah Vassell | CBT LAB Theatre
3pm. Landscape, With Color by Jeannette Brown | Historic Westwood

TUESDAY, JANUARY 13

7pm. Table Reading: Painter by Derek Davidson | Addison's Bookstore

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14

7pm. Table Reading: Shrinking Violet by Gabriella Runnels | Addison's Bookstore

THURSDAY, JANUARY 15

7pm. Four Steps Forward with Next Rung Productions | CBT LAB Theatre
8pm. Landscape, With Color by Jeannette Brown | Historic Westwood

FRIDAY, JANUARY 16

7pm. A Sad Vampire by Aleah Vassell | CBT LAB Theatre
8pm. Landscape, With Color by Jeannette Brown | Historic Westwood

SATURDAY, JANUARY 17

3pm. Landscape, With Color by Jeannette Brown | Historic Westwood
7pm. Potential by Emily Pope | CBT LAB Theatre
8pm. Landscape, With Color by Jeannette Brown | Historic Westwood

SUNDAY, JANUARY 18

2pm. The Polders by Alex Drinnen | CBT LAB Theatre
3pm. Landscape, With Color by Jeannette Brown | Historic Westwood
7pm. Festival Celebration | The Sunsphere

TICKETS AND PASSES

Staged Readings: $15

Table Readings: $5

Landscape, With Color Tickets: $25

All-Access Pass: $90

INCLUDES:
Commemorative Pass for Unlimited Festival Attendance!
1 ticket to Landscape, With Color (must be reserved in advance)
Invitation to the Playwrights Brunch on Saturday, January 10th @ 11:00am
Invitation to the Festival Celebration on Sunday, January 18th @ 7:00pm

Festival Pass: $60

INCLUDES:
1 ticket to each of our 3 staged readings
Entry to all 4 table readings
Invitation to the Festival Celebration on Sunday, January 18th @ 7:00pm

MORE ABOUT THE PLAYS

SPOTLIGHT PRODUCTION

Landscape, With Color by Jeannette Brown | January 8–18 | Historic Westwood

In a Southern art studio at the edge of modernity, a talented painter returns home to claim her place in a male-dominated art guild, challenging tradition, stirring old ghosts, and discovering that the act of creation can be the most radical form of defiance. Partnership with Knox Heritage.

DEVELOPMENT SERIES STAGED READINGS

The Polders by Alex Drinnen | January 10 & January 18 | CBT LAB Theatre

As an island nation faces their destruction through climate change, they meet with an eccentric American billionaire who promises them salvation. However, what starts as an absurd pitch soon turns into a fight for the very nature of the island itself, its culture, and its place on the global stage.

Potential by Emily Pope | January 9 & January 17 | CBT LAB Theatre

As two best friends prepare to leave for a prestigious teaching program abroad, their group of tightly-knit recent college graduates reunites for one last day of packing and reflection. But as emotions surface and futures collide, it becomes clear the real baggage isn't in the boxes.

A Sad Vampire by Aleah Vassell | January 11 & January 16 | CBT LAB Theatre

When Michelle, a down-on-her-luck vampire, seeks solace in a neighborhood Applebee’s on Halloween night, she is forced to face her demons (or should I say her ghost ex-boyfriend and his new werewolf girlfriend) in this biting dark comedy about identity and survival.

TABLE READINGS

Audience Wanted by Sherridan Smee | January 7 | Addison's Bookstore

Donna might be the only living comedian to survive a nuclear war, and she’s on a desperately funny mission to find her audience and prove that someone out there is still listening.

Painter by Derek Davidson | January 13 | Addison's Bookstore

Mike loves nature; his daughter Brea does not. During one last visit to their secluded family cabin, Mike is forced to ask: if he can’t save his daughter, how can he save the world he loves?

Shrinking Violet by Gabriella Runnels | January 14 | Addison's Bookstore

In a small Appalachian town, three misfits become entangled in a web of obsession and buried secrets, leading to a tragedy as haunting as the Shakespearean play they are rehearsing.

Theater of Operations by Craig Smith | January 6 | Addison's Bookstore

On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, three generations of a military family reunite for a backyard cookout where traumas resurface as they face what war has taken and what it has left behind.

2026 New Play Festival

Building Stories from the Script Up