Comments from 2010

"The NAAA Playreading Festival was a wonderful experience for me. The director did an excellent and imaginative job of staging my play, and the cast was stellar. I give the NAAA an A (and London's not bad either!). A definite thumbs up!" – Janet Burnham, author WANDA JOHNSON AND THE KINGDOM OF HAIR

"I really appreciated the artistic generosity, curiosity, willingness to take risks and overall talent of the folks I worked with at the festival. it was inspiring to bring theatre artists from 5 different time zones together to make something we could all be proud of. I also appreciated the respect with which the festival treated all the material -- this was a really inspiring, nourishing artistic experience. Steven Simoncic, author TOXIC DONUT

One reviewer’s reaction to one of the readings last year sums it up:

"Given that this was a play reading, it was astonishing how quickly we forgot that the actors were reading* from their scripts; the powerful performances from [the actors] seemed to make them vanish." – Fabian Acker, London Festival

NAAA Playreading Festival 2011

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO SUNDAY APRIL 16TH.

The 2011 Festival will run for six evenings from September 5 - 10. Each play that makes it through our rigorous selection process is given a rehearsed public reading by a professional director, and cast from among our members who are all professional actors living and working in the UK. Industry professionals from producers and directors to casting and literary agents make up a significant portion of our audiences. These are truly three dimensional staged readings in which both directors and actors are encouraged to go for maximum depth and entertainment value.

New this year: Electronic Submissions Only – save on postage.

In previous years, Playwrights were having to stump up as much as $70 postage to send their plays overseas to us. We felt that this puts an unfair financial burden on writers, so in fairness to all, this year we are accepting electronic submissions only. You simply upload your script in PDF format via our registration page. We ask only a small administrtion fee of £15, equivalent to approximately $25 US, all proceeds of which will go directly into making this years Festival better than ever!!

ALL ENTRANTS WILL RECEIVE HONEST AND CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK ON THEIR SCRIPTS FROM OUR PANEL OF READERS, ALL OF WHOM ARE THEATRE PROFESSIONALS INCLUDING ACTORS, DIRECTORS AND WRITERS.

Interested in taking part? Register your play here

Festival History

The North American Actors Association was established in 1997 as an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to and run by North American actors based in the UK, with the principle aim of raising awareness of the presence and availability of a substantial body of genuine American and Canadian actors within the entertainment industry.

The NAAA places great importance on giving exposure to the works of top quality North American playwrights, especially new works not previously seen in the UK. To this end the annual NAAA Playreading Festival was conceived and set up in 2001 and has been running yearly ever since.

Previously staged in various off West End venues such as the Soho Theatre, the Tristan Bates, and the Bridewell, the Festival is being presented for the second year running at the beautiful Webber Douglas Studio in Swiss Cottage, near Hampstead, North London – home to the cream of London’s intelligentsia. Formerly the Embassy Theatre, the Webber Douglas operates under the auspices of the Central School of Speech and Drama, generally considered one of the world’s finest and most prestigious drama schools.

The 2011 Festival will run for six evenings from September 5 - 10. Each play that makes it through our rigorous selection process is given a rehearsed public reading by a professional director, and cast from among our own superbly talented members. Industry professionals from producers and directors to casting and literary agents are invited to attend free of charge and make up a significant portion of our audiences. Our play readings are never dull affairs with actors perched on stools with heads buried in scripts. Both directors and actors are encouraged to go for the maximum depth and entertainment value, to put your story across as effectively as possible in the context of a rehearsed reading.