You’re Invited to NHP’s 2025 Celebration of Playwrights!
This year, we’re thrilled to introduce a new approach to the final weekend of the Annual Writers’ Residency. We’re keeping the tradition of creating both formal and informal opportunities to engage with NHP’s Writers in Residence, and inviting our guests to explore and support New Harmony’s businesses.
This year, you’ll make your own hotel reservations at the New Harmony Inn (reserve by May 6 and see below for a discount code) or be adventurous and explore one of the bed and breakfast options in town!
Then, make your reservation here to attend the free readings during our final weekend.
And this year, you can add an optional $150 Social Package to your free reading tickets - this will give you an invitation to a Welcome Reception on Friday, dinner on Saturday evening, and a Closing Celebration Saturday night. To attend these social events with the writers, purchase the ‘Social Package’ when you reserve your tickets. We’d love to have you!
For your other meals during the weekend, we recommend visiting one of the restaurants in town. We’ll provide a list of options in a confirmation email closer to the final weekend.
THE SCHEDULE:
FRIDAY, MAY 30
8:00pm - Introducing the Writers at Thrall’s Opera House
Meet the 26 Writers in Residence at NHP’s 2025 Annual Writers’ Residency
9:00pm - Reception at The New Harmony Inn Gate House (Social Package)
Add on the Social Package to join us for a short reception and mingle with the NHP community
SATURDAY, MAY 31
11:30am - Dramaturgy Roundtable at The New Harmony Inn Conference Center
Meet the nationally renowned dramaturgs participating in the 2025 New Harmony Project Residency for a conversation about national trends in storytelling and the shifts in freelance dramaturgy in the United States.
Lunch on your own in town
3:00PM - Reading of The Waterfall by Phanésia Pharel at Thrall’s Opera House
In partnership with Thrown Stone Theatre Company. Tensions brew as Bean returns home to help her brilliantly biting, stubborn Haitian American mother, Emi, after a health scare. Despite succeeding in many of life’s shoulds, Bean is lost, struggling to settle down, and her mother is having none of it. Poetic, personal, and prodigal, The Waterfall explores the complicated bond between mother and daughter, the notion that all women are born to be mothers, and what it means to live your own version of the American Dream.
5:30PM - Celebratory Dinner at Say’s Restaurant (Social Package)
When you add on the Social Package, you’re invited to join NHP’s Executive Artistic Director, Jenni Werner, and a select group of writers for dinner and a conversation about their work in New Harmony and across the country.
7:00PM - Reading of ...For My Next Trick by Michael Shayan at Thrall’s Opera House
Smoke! Mirrors! Trauma! Join Emmy-nominated writer and Magic Castle illusionist Michael Shayan in a death-defying journey through impossible circumstances. Watch as he attempts to conjure his father’s validation, saw his emotional baggage in half, and pull off the world’s most harrowing escape – from his past! For My Next Trick… is a wickedly funny, wildly theatrical play about illusion, identity, and the nature of the impossible.
9:00PM - Closing Night Reception at Sara’s Wine Bar (Social Package)
When you add the Social Package, we invite you to join us and raise a glass to the 2025 New Harmony Project Annual Writers’ Residency!
LODGING
Rooms at The New Harmony Inn can be booked for $115.00 by calling the Inn directly at 812-682-4431 and asking for “NHP Room Block”. This rate is only available until May 6th, so make your reservations soon!
Or stay at any of the independently owned and operated historic homes. For more information about the historic homes, click here.