Explore the six readings of new plays in our reading series for the 2025 New Play Festival. Each day features readings of full plays written by MFA playwrights.

Tickets are free, but you must obtain a ticket for entry into a reading.

Reading Series Schedule

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POP!

Monday, May 5, 2025 1:30pm to 3:30pm
Theatre Building
POP! explores the proximity of humanity and nature through a forest that is very much alive and deliriously in danger.
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LARPlay

Tuesday, May 6, 2025 1:30pm to 3:30pm
Theatre Building
LARPlay follows Ash, a stubborn non-gamer recovering from a near-death experience, who is reluctantly pulled into a LARP designed by her late childhood friend. As she struggles with grief and the fear of her own mortality, the fantasy world begins to feel more real. Forcing her to confront what it truly means to fight, to play, and to keep living.
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Terminal

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 1:30pm to 3:30pm
Theatre Building
A girl about to leave for college is compelled to navigate her grief in the landscape of her own mind with the help of her younger sister.
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This is My Body

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Theatre Building
In Southern Baptist Suburbia, a pastor grapples with his failing health and faith as he falls in love with his fellow pastor.
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Go!

Thursday, May 8, 2025 1:30pm to 3:30pm
Theatre Building
In the amazing world of "Punymon Go!" expert trainers form lasting friendships with their creature companions, go on glorious adventures to improve their skills, and team up to battle an ultra-serious gaming addiction.
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The Milk Miracle

Friday, May 9, 2025 1:30pm to 3:30pm
Theatre Building
The Milk Miracle centers on a playwright navigating questions of identity, place, and belonging—both personal and cultural—while writing a story about a family struggling with grief, community expectations, and the weight of tradition. The play explores the layered tensions between the act of writing and the forces that shape a story’s creation.

Funding for the Iowa New Play Festival is provided by The David and Jean Schaal Fund for Theatre Arts.