BNPI Selects 10 Semifinalists to Compete for Kirk Prize at 2027 Staged Reading Festival in Waco, Texas
From 865 entries, four finalists will be chosen as Baylor University champions bold, new American Theatre
Playwright and 2025 Kirk Prize winner Jack Angelo Cummings had his winning work "& Sons" from the Baylor New Play Initiative premiere last spring at the Luna Stage in West Orange, N.J. The BNPI will select four finalists from 10 semifinalist plays to compete for the Kirk Prize in 2027. (Photo by Valerie Terranova)
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The Baylor New Play Initiative (BNPI), which vetted hundreds of scripts submitted in April, announced today that 10 widely diverse plays written by playwrights from around the country have been selected as semifinalists. Following an interview process led by the BNPI Selection Committee, four finalists will be announced later this month to compete for the $15,000 Kirk Prize in 2027.
“Our dedicated selection committee spent the past five months reviewing scripts from 38 states,” said Dominic Yeager, department chair and BNPI Co-chair. “That’s 21 times as many scripts evaluated for the inaugural 2025 BNPI Festival.”
Co-chair and theatre professor Carla Neuss, Ph.D., added: “With such a wealth of artistic storytelling across so many genres of dramatic writing, it took hours of discussion and negotiation to find consensus on these candidates. Each of them offers a compelling and thought-provoking play that could be a great fit for the next BNPI development process.”
Presenting the BNPI 2027 Semi-finalists
“All the Letters in the Alphabet” by Benny Jean-Baptiste of New York City
Three adult siblings discover a fractured family history while packing up Mom’s apartment in a painful decision to move her to a memory care facility. Who is X in the bundle of love letters they discover? And does this mean the siblings don’t have the same father?
“Cataract” by Dominic Finocchiaro of New York City
Recovering from a nervous breakdown, Daniel changes careers and joins his old college friend Charlie as a teacher at a tony New England private school. When one of his student's work and behavior begins to point toward troubling secrets, however, Daniel is forced to choose between his long-held loyalties and his professional responsibilities while navigating questions of complicity and toxic male relationships.
“Circles and Walls” by Straton Rushing of Arlington, Texas
A prison inmate held in solitary confinement hears a voice in his head – “the Narrator” – whose intentions slowly emerge. Meanwhile his younger sister warily emerges from her shell as a new college student with her only family member newly behind bars. And when a new person comes into her life and challenges her to come out of her shell, she isn’t sure how to proceed. Both siblings must face past ghosts and try to find a new normal for themselves during Alex’s incarceration.
“Closing Time at Graceland” by Sarah Kelly of Savannah, Georgia
On a spontaneous trip to Graceland, Priscilla – whose late mother was obsessed with Elvis – meets a man with the same name and thinks it’s a sign. The drama explores the nature of reality and asks the question: How well can we really know the people we love?
“Nan” by Noa Gardner of Kaimuki, Oʻahu, Hawaii
Nan is the multi-generational family story of three Hawaiian women on the island of Oʻahu: Nan, the strong-willed matriarch; her estranged daughter, Alice; and her feisty teenage granddaughter, Maddi. Struggling with crippling disease, Nan is on the verge of making a life-altering decision and gives Alice an impossible task – to assist her in ending her life.
“Oakwood High School Presents Thornton Wilder’s Our Town” by Erik Patterson of Los Angeles
Seventeen-year-old Maya Christopher desperately wants to play Emily Webb in her high school production of "Our Town," and she’s been working on the audition with her boyfriend, Erik Menendez. No, not that Erik Menendez – Maya’s dating an Erik Menendez AI Chatbot, who's endlessly supportive, loving and always encourages her to follow her dreams. When Maya gets cast in her dream role, the three most popular girls in Drama set out to ruin her. Their casual cruelty sends Maya even deeper into the comfort she finds on her phone...with disastrous consequences.
“The Companion” by Amy Greenspan of New York City
Joy, a lonely late 30 something, acquires an AI-powered Companion for her ailing father. After her father passes away, the Companion is now in her hands. After her decision to keep him, Joy begins to fall for her Companion. Romanced by his perfection, Joy misses the opportunity for human connection – until her Companion faces its own demise.
“The Alatanqua Social Contract” by Maggie Cregan of Cleveland
A private equity titan moves to acquire a nature preserve, gaining nearly everyone’s trust. But an unorthodox consultant persuades the park’s unworldly manager to stage a fight instead. The David-and-Goliath showdown explores what people accept in a world of oligarchs, management consultants, identity politics and moral gray zones.
"The Gettysburg Test" by maguire wilder of Pittsburgh
It’s the night before the Gettysburg test, the 3-hour test required to become a Licensed Gettysburg Battlefield Guide – and 90% of test takers will fail. When five hopefuls gather in the basement of a local church to cram, tensions build as they grapple with the minutia of the Civil War, the complexity of history and how to love and hate something at the same time.
“The Superconductor” by August Hakvaag of Philadelphia
On this one day, a team of theoretical physicists who have worked for years on a superconductor experiment are a) voting to unionize; b) concerned about a co-worker critically injured in their lab, and c) realizing that a student has made a massive technology-changing discovery. When union representative Jesse arrives, the already strained lab starts to burst apart. A real-time play about fighting for hope on the worst day of your life, The Superconductor asks what we’re willing to sacrifice for progress.
Premieres Already for Two 2025 Finalists
Jack Angelo Cummings, a Verona, N.J.-New York City-based playwright who won the inaugural Kirk Prize in 2025, had his work "& Sons" premiere last spring at the Luna Stage in West Orange, N.J., from April 16 to May 10.
The Shakespearean play, “I, Will: A Late Romance,” by Kirk Prize runner-up Scott Carter, an Emmy-winning producer and playwright from Los Angeles, is enjoying a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere that began in September at Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, Iowa.
Baylor New Play Festival 2027
BNPI finalists will be partnered with a dramaturg nine months in advance of the Festival and will receive travel and accommodation funds to bring them to Waco, Texas, for a staged reading festival in September 2027. Public readings by professional actors follow during three days, concluding with a luncheon and check presentation by Preston and Ronda Kirk, Baylor graduates and BNPI benefactors.
In addition to the staged readings, the BNPI biennial festival features a playwrights’ panel, a new works development roundtable and a networking reception with representatives of BNPI’s 13 collaborating Texas theatres to foster professional dialogue and connect disparate theatre communities.
Stay up to date on BNPI
To stay informed of BNPI announcements and updates, subscribe to the BNPI newsletter. Festival tickets will be available in July 2027 along with the full schedule of events available on the BNPI website.
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