Headwaters New Play Festival
The Festival
Now in its 11th season, the Headwaters New Play Festival will showcase a commissioned work written specifically for CRT. A festival pass includes:
Friday, August 25
10:00am @ the Virginia Christensen Multi-Use Facility
World Premiere of the 40th Annual Young Audience Outreach Tour – Team Blue
The City Dog & The Prairie Dog with book and lyrics by Diana Grisanti and music by Emiliano Messiez
General Admission
Saturday, August 26
10:00am @ the Virginia Christensen Multi-Use Facility
World Premiere of the 40th Annual Young Audience Outreach Tour – Team Pink
The City Dog & The Prairie Dog with book and lyrics by Diana Grisanti and music by Emiliano Messiez
General Admission
11:15am @ the Virginia Christensen Multi-Use Facility
Reading of the 3rd Annual Tiny Tour
Roy G Biv by Brittni Shambaugh Addison
General Admission
1:00pm @ The Ruth
Staged Reading of Prima’s Guide to Funerals by Leonard Madrid (pictured).
Ticketed**
Sunday, August 27
10:00am @ The Cliffside Patio
Headwaters Brunch. Eat, drink, and participate in a guided discussion about the plays you just saw.
A festival pass is $40 and includes all of the activities listed above.
Roy G Biv and The City Dog & The Prairie Dog may be attended without a Festival Pass with a suggested $5 donation.
** Please note that our ticketing system will ask you to select seats in the Ruth Theatre for the reading of Prima’s Guide to Funerals on Saturday, August 26 @ 1:00pm, but the Pass is your ticket to all of the events listed above!
Our Mission
To foster the development of new plays for the CRT stage and beyond. Our unique and remote location, high in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, cultivates artistic growth, focus, and inspiration for new work.
Our Vision
Since its inception in 2012, the Headwaters New Play Festival is a week-long workshop where new plays are developed with a team of professional theatre artists and receive public readings. Like its name suggests, Headwaters aspires to be a source of new American plays, constantly evolving. Currently, we are interested in plays that capture the intricacies of life; plays that examine the American urban/rural divide; and finally, plays that inspire the pioneering spirit that lives within us all. Creede Rep seeks to amplify the voices of Latinx playwrights on our stage and to reach the communities of the San Luis Valley and beyond.
In 2022, we moved away from an open-submission process. Inspired by its bilingual Young Audience Outreach Tour, the Headwaters Festival has merged with its Mainstage/Ruth Commission component launched in 2020. Creede Rep will support the work of new and returning playwrights. Once a playwright receives a commission, they will collaborate with CRT through a series of online and in-person workshops, including a staged reading at the annual Headwaters New Play Festival in late summer and often, with a full scale production in the Mainstage or Ruth Theatre.
Submission Guidelines
The Headwaters New Play Festival is currently not accepting submissions.
CRT’s bilingual Young Audience Outreach Tour (YAOT) brings high quality musical theatre outside of Creede, particularly to rural and historically neglected communities. This program annually produces an original children’s show, for students in grades K-6, that tours throughout the southwest, Kansas and more. Proposals for YAOT commissions typically open up every three years. The Young Audience Outreach Tour is currently not accepting submissions.