NEW WORKS FESTIVAL 2026 -
D-PAC PUP (Playwrights Under Progress) Fest
Saturday, June 6 - Times of Performances TBA
FREE (RSVP Required) - Dallas College Richland Campus
D-PAC PUP Fest 2026 Plays TBA:
For its landmark 25th annual event, PUP Fest will feature six staged readings of jury-selected plays written by DFW high school students, featuring student actors directed by area professional directors. PUP Fest is the culminating event of Dallas Playwriting Arts Collective (D-PAC), a partnership with Dallas ISD and Junior Players.
D-PAC PUP Fest is supported by:
HISTORY:
In 2001, Kitchen Dog Theater partnered with the award-winning Dallas arts education organization Junior Players to create PUP Fest, a locally lauded (DFW Critics’ Forum Award) and nationally recognized (NEA) program dedicated to the cultivation of student playwrights. In 2017 the two organizations forged a new partnership with the Dallas Independent School District called D-PAC. By leveraging organizational assets, the new partnership allowed for expanded services and additional performance opportunities. D-PAC activities include three interrelated components: multiple in-school masterclasses led by local professional playwrights at 20 DISD high schools, a districtwide competition of fifteen-minute plays written, directed, and performed by students, and PUP Fest.
Founded in 1955, Junior Players is the oldest performing arts education nonprofit in North Texas, Kitchen Dog Theater’s annual New Works Festival is the longest running new play festival in the state of Texas, and Dallas Independent School District is the fourteenth-largest school district in the United States. Together, D-PAC is one of the most innovative student playwriting programs in the country and one of the largest in terms of reach, scope, and diversity of activities.”
