Rough Draft Festival
For over two decades, the Rough Draft Festival (formerly LPAC Lab) has launched innovative works by emerging theater artists, fostering a collaborative environment for artists and audiences. LPAC champions an unconventional approach, inviting audiences, including our diverse community, to engage in ongoing conversations about art and its role within our community.
The Rough Draft Festival offers artists a supportive environment to develop their work and provides students and community with the chance to witness the creation of new theater pieces.
Rough Draft Reading Festival: An open call inviting professional and student
playwrights to apply, running in MARCH. Applications are accepted from October through mid-December, with a committee selecting five professional and five student playwrights.
Work-in-Progress Festival: Taking place in the fall, featuring two of the professional plays chosen based on audience surveys. This component provides a platform for both professional and student playwrights to develop their work further.
Workshops: The Rough Draft Festival offers workshops aimed at community engagement and artistic development:
Artist-Led Workshops: Professional artists lead workshops on various theater production aspects and thematic explorations.
SUBMIT YOUR WORK FOR ROUGH DRAFT 2025 - DEADLINE DEC. 6TH @ 5PM
Rough Draft Highlights 2020-2023
The bilingual English & Spanish theatrical experience ESTÁN CORDIALMENTE INVITADOS A TIRAR LA CASA POR LA VENTANA EN CELEBRACIÓN DE LOS QUINCE DE CARLA; OR, LEAVE YOUR POLITICS AT HOME addresses political and social issues in an accessible and entertaining way. Conceived and directed by Estefania Fadul the piece is a breakdown of the voting process and some of the issues at stake in the 2020 general election in a non-partisan way.
A Verbatim play, MEMORIAL by Adam A. Elsayigh tells the story of the New Zealand Muslim community during and following the two mosque shootings that occurred in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019.
Do we choose our politicians, or do our politicians choose us? The nature of American democracy comes into question with PACKING and CRACKING by creator/director Rachel Gita Karp. An interactive map making event about gerrymandering, this piece examines the pervasive practice of politicians choosing their voters rather than the other way around.
The exciting new musical THE CHILDREN FROM THE BLUE MOUNTAIN
by Jermaine Rowe intertwines two Afro/Caribbean folklore characters as they journey to capture the power within all stories using traditional flk, soca, dancehall and reggae and answer the question, “What is the ultimate cost
of a dream?”
SEX AND THE ABBEY by Diana Ly. Hrotsvit, the first known western female playwright, was a secular canoness in 10th Century Saxony who lived in Gandersheim Abbey.
Next up at Rough Draft
#IAMARoughDraft
"Rough Draft refers to the spirit of the artists who are always open, imaginative and full of fresh ideas. Despite the fact that the world is changing every day, the spirit of Rough Draft remains the same. That spirit is something I strongly hold on to and can proudly say, #IAMAROUGHTDRAFT"
- Handan Ozbilgin, Curator
