The 16 day-long playwriting development conference, now in its 20th season, is held in New Harmony, Indiana, on the banks of the Wabash. The town has a long tradition of experimentation as a religious community and utopian enclave.

The 2006 scripts in full development are for at NHP are Likeness, a play by David Caudle; The 13th of Paris, a play by Mat Smart; and Gulf View Drive, a play by Arlene Hutton.

Heartland Film Festival will sponsor a writer at this year's The New Harmony Project. Oscar Torres, Crystal Award winner of the 2005 Heartland Film Festival for his film "Innocent Voices," will receive a coveted writer in residence position. The other writers in residence are Shane Black, Connie Congdon, Jim Leonard, Michele Lowe, Joyce O'Connor and James Still.

Over 130 scripts have been developed at NHP during the past 19 years, and many have gone on to celebrated productions Off-Broadway and in regional theatres nationwide.

A partial list of national productions includes Heather McDonald's An Almost Holy Picture, Jenny Laird's Sky Girls and Warren Leight's Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine. Among the many past writers that have attended the NHP are Tony Award-winner Warren Leight, Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Schenkkan, Academy Award-nominee Robert Anderson and Indiana native Angelo Pizzo.

The New Harmony Project — a non-profit organization based in Indianapolis — was established in 1986 "to serve writers and scripts that celebrate the human spirit."

The NHP conference dates are May 19 through June 4. Rehearsals and readings at the conference are free and open to the public. To arrange a visit, please contact Joel Grynheim at (317) 464-1103.