Play & Musical Development

Is your play or musical ready for development?

Each year, The Gulf Coast Rep will present a season filled with new, original work. Submissions are open to agented and unagented playwrights, composers, and lyricists. Our team is ready to help you with your new work, no matter which stage of development it is in. 

STAGE ONE:  Table reads with actors for the writing team. This can be done in-person or via Zoom. 

STAGE TWO: A 29 hour reading.  A team of actors and a director spend a total of 29 combined hours of rehearsals and performances to read the new work for an audience,

STAGE THREE:  A developmental workshop. In this stage of development, the producing team spends approximately two weeks working with the writers and a troupe of actors to delve into the script in preparation of a staged reading.

STAGE FOUR: A full regional production. Over a four to six week rehearsal period, the play or musical is fully staged for an audience. The performance run can be a single weekend or a multi-weekend run. 

Submitting your work -

There are two ways to submit your work to The Gulf Coast Rep:

Year Round -

Submit the following items to darren@gulfcoastrep.com 

• Full script

• If it is a musical, please submit demos of the songs. These do not have to be polished demos. Work tapes are perfectly acceptable.

• A one sheet with full contact information of all writers on the project, a summary of the play, any development history, bios of the writers

The materials will be shared with the committee members of the Advisory Council who handle new work. Response time is four to six weeks depending on the number of submissions we have at the time. Selected works will be considered for placement in our season.

Gulf Coast New Works Festival - OCTOBER 19 -25, 2025

All submissions will be submitted through the Submittable platform. Submissions begin April 10, 2025 Submissions close May 31, 2025 Selections notified on July 1st

The Gulf Coast New Works Festival will be held over 7 days at the end of October. It will consist of staged readings of four new plays/musicals. There will be one fully staged production of a play and one of a musical, which will be the featured mainstage productions. Additionally, we will screen 8 indie films - features, shorts, animated (family friendly).