Finding the Heart of Your Play with Che'Rae Adams

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After multiple sold-out intensives, PlayPenn's Artistic Director, Che'Rae Adams, returns with an in-person two-hour workshop, an experience designed for playwrights struggling to find the true heart of their plays, or who need inspiration to dig deeper and fully understand what their story is really about.

Drawing on decades of experience in new play development, Che'Rae brings the same clarity and intention she discovered while working in the room with Tony Kushner on Angels in America: Perestroika, Peter Parnell on The Cider House Rules, and the late Jon Bastian on Strange Fruit. These large scale, emotionally rich works were master classes in getting to the root of the story that the author intended.

When a playwright understands the purpose behind their story, the writing becomes more focused, more alive, and more resonant. In this workshop, Che'Rae guides participants through a series of targeted exercises designed to uncover the true heart of the play. Writers learn how to clarify their protagonist's action and objective, how to structure a story with intention, and how to articulate why their play matters, both to them and to the world they are writing into. These tools have proven again and again to help playwrights strengthen their work from the inside out.

Past students often say the exercises help them see their play in an entirely new way. Breakthroughs tend to center around clarity, purpose, and intent, the foundational elements that transform a draft into a meaningful dramatic journey. Open to writers of all levels, this workshop will include a PDF of Che'Rae's workbook, "Writing is Hard", so participants can continue to develop their plays long after the session ends.

About The Instructor

Che’Rae Adams has been the Producing Artistic Director of the LA Writers Center since 2006 where she develops new work with local writers. She was the Director of Operations and Programming for the Moss Theater in Santa Monica for seven years and has been the Development Executive for Playhouse Pictures Studios, Co-Artistic Director of the Road Theatre Company, and Managing Producer for the LA Women’s Theatre Festival. Che'Rae joined PlayPenn's staff as its second Artistic Director in 2023.

About the 2026 New Play Development Conference

PlayPenn’s nationally recognized New Play Development Conference brings together readings of new plays alongside a citywide series of civic gatherings, workshops, artist exchanges, and public conversations focusing on art, democracy, historical memory, belonging, and collective imagination. This community-focused approach to new play development reflects a broader vision of theatre in a shared civic life that illuminates what theatre can do, who participates in it, how it unfolds, and why it matters. 

The 19-event Conference brings together 22 playwrights participating across workshops, conversations, and five new work presentations while expanding its scope to include an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Eboni Booth (Primary Trust), free playwriting workshops for adults, teens, and women over 50, and a public conversation examining constitutional history and civic identity.

Additional programming includes a community workshop for queer theatre makers; a convening on innovation in theatre-making with leaders from Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Cannonball Festival, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Lemonade Stand, and Tiny Dynamite; and an acting lab focused on approaches to new play development and cross-community exchanges among theatre artists.