Guest blogger Zayd Dohrn is a playwright and screenwriter living in New York. His play Sick headlined Kitchen Dog Theater’s New Works Festival last year, and his new play, Long Way Go Down, will be read as part of the festival on Saturday at 2 p.m.

It’s rare these days to find a theater in America interested in doing new plays. Rarer still to find one interested in edgy, provocative scripts by young American playwrights. And to find a theater that does those difficult plays well – with courage and style and brilliance – is a writer’s dream.

I got involved with Kitchen Dog Theater last year, when it produced the world premiere of my play Sick as part of the New Works Festival. I’ve never felt so spoiled as a writer – an inspiring group of collaborators, a generous and welcoming theater community and a knock-out production.

It’s no surprise that Dallas has lately become a destination of choice for playwrights  – Kitchen Dog alone has recently premiered plays by fearless, inventive writers such as Allison Moore and Yussef El Guindi, whose work is now being produced  in New York and around the world.

All this is to say, if you’ve never been to a new play reading before, or if you’re at all interested in seeing how a play moves from the page to the stage in the hands of brilliant actors and directors, go check out the New Works Festival. Tickets are pay-what-you can, and there’s no better place in the country to check out the next generation of American playwrights at work.