When it comes to nurturing young plays, FutureFest has gained a national reputation for doing it right.

The annual July weekend at the Dayton Playhouse offers six talented playwrights from around the country the opportunity to see their work on stage — often for the first time. Equally important is the constructive feedback they receive from a panel of renowned judges and an audience of committed theatergoers, all of whom take their jobs quite seriously.

The 22nd annual festival is slated for Friday, July 27, through Sunday, July 29. Both weekend passes and individual tickets are now on sale.

In addition to seeing a variety of plays, audiences look forward to walks and talks in the lush Wegerzyn Gardens Metropark during intermissions and informal interaction with the playwrights and adjudicators, who are always approachable. A grand prize of $1,000 is awarded at the end of the weekend.

Some commercial successes have come out of FutureFest over the years — most recently Beau Willimon’s play “Farragut North,” was made into a major motion picture, “The Ides of March.”

A volunteer effort

The mammoth undertaking is accomplished by about 100 volunteers who read and evaluate the scripts, stage the productions, take the tickets, serve the lemonade and coffee, prepare and pass out programs and shuttle the playwrights to and from hotels and meals.

That’s one of the things that impressed playwright Faye Sholiton of Cleveland. A grand-prize winner for her play, “The Interview” in 1997, Sholiton has returned to Dayton as an audience member, and this month will serve as a judge along with returning adjudicators David Finkle, Rob Koon, Helen Sneed and Eleanore Speert. They’re all known for their incisive criticism as well as their entertaining repartee.

What she remembers most about her first FutureFest weekend, says Sholiton, was how much she loved being with the other playwrights and how shocked she was to see her play so fully realized on stage.

“They had taken so much care in their preparation,” she says now. “I think what’s so extraordinary about FutureFest is the commitment never stops; this group motors through the year.”

Selection process is year-round

Program director Fran Pesch, involved with the festival since its inception, estimates 6,000 scripts have been submitted and read through the years. There have been as many as 465 submissions in a given year; this time the committee received 165 eligible plays including plays from Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada (Ontario & Montreal). In past years, plays also have arrived from Israel, Greece, France, Ukraine, Brazil and Iceland. Three of this year’s finalists are returnees.

Each play is guaranteed at least three initial readings. Retired English teacher Margaret Baird, who has served on the play-reading committee since 2003, says she has a lifelong interest in the written word and each new play is an adventure.

“I enjoy finding a really well-written script or a wonderful new character or plot line,” Baird explains. “That time I set aside each day for that day’s play is almost a sacred time, one I will not let be interrupted. I try to give it the same focus as the theater experience would be, interrupted only by an intermission.”

Audiences return

Daytonian Jacqui Theobald is one of nearly 100 people who returns each July to sit in the darkened theater at FutureFest.

Theobald says she loves the energy of the weekend and especially enjoys hearing playwrights describe their writing process and the opportunity to compare her own reactions with the comments of the pros.

“The conversations between authors, judges and audience members are the best of all,” Theobald says. “They’ve gotten better over the years with more depth and more humor.”

The subject of those conversations ranges from plot and character development to theme and structure. Playwrights are also given advice on taking their play to the next level.

An actor’s challenge

Megan Cooper has been on the have FutureFest stage five times and is looking forward to performing again this year.

“At a time when many theaters across the country are making ‘safe’ choices by staging traditional audience favorites, it’s exciting to be a part of a project specifically dedicated to supporting playwrights and new works,” she says.

For Cooper, much of the excitement comes from creating a never-before-seen character. She says directors have a blank slate in moving the script to the stage, and everyone is learning, networking and having a great time.

“It’s really a demonstration of the creative process of theater,” she says.

Cooper says the work being done in Dayton impacts the larger theater community by providing a testing ground for talented playwrights and their scripts. The authors, she knows, frequently make changes to their scripts based on the feedback they receive at FutureFest.

Playwright David Rush, a former finalist who will be back this year, says FutureFest is a wonderful credit for any playwright’s resume.

“It gives the writer a chance to hear and see how an audience reacts to the play, to learn from their reaction what in the play is clear, what is dramatic, what is not working,” he says. “It also gives the writer a chance to get feedback from the respondents about suggestions for the play — some of which the writer may accept or reject as he sees fit.

“It gives a writer a chance to meet and interact with other writers and to share ideas and war stories. And, I know from experience, that it gives a writer a chance to meet and work with very warm, talented and gracious folks.”

Beloved tradition

John Riley, one of the founders of FutureFest, believes it takes a community theater to accomplish a weekend event of this magnitude.

Along with his wife, Marty, Riley continues to support the festival, each year, underwriting a free Sunday night picnic supper that closes the weekend.

“For me, the goals have always been to help the author move their script forward, to give all the volunteers a chance to expand their horizons and to bring national recognition to The Dayton Playhouse,” he says. “Some of these authors and adjudicators have made connections that will last a lifetime.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2440 or MMoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.