At a time when many theater organizations are tightening their belts and trimming play-development programs, Phoenix Theatre’s five-week New Works Festival stands out as the little festival that could.

The New Works Fest, in its eighth year under East Valley playwright Richard Warren, continues as one of the highest-anticipated theatrical events of the summer, uniting audiences with plays from new and notable playwrights in and outside the Valley.

This year, acclaimed E.V. playwright Dale Wasserman (with adaptations of “Man of La Mancha,” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”) will see a staged reading of his “Players in the Game,” a religious satire set in the 1400s that finds a liberal bishop bargaining with an inquisitor bent on meeting his quota of heretic burnings.

“In a way,” Warren says, “it’s about the Catholic Church, but also about religious zealotry in general.”

Warren forged a friendship with the reclusive Wasserman several years ago, and the senior playwright has not only contributed to Warren’s festival (Wasserman’s last New Works Fest entry was “How I Saved the Whole Damn World”) but helped Warren with his own scripts.

Other staged readings in the festival include Florida playwright Michael McKeever’s “Unreasonable Doubt” — about a mourning father who goes after the lawyer of his daughter’s murderer — and East Coast soap-opera scribe Hal Corley’s eccentric comedy “The Death Bite.”

Warren, who regularly includes one of his works in the festival, will see a full production of his “Snap,” a drama about former high-school classmates who confront a bullying former jock later in life.

“I didn’t necessarily plan it this way,” Warren says, “but they’re all very contemporary, very relevant plays.”

For the playwrights, who see their works performed by actors with scripts in hand and later can get audience feedback in question-and-answer sessions, the festival experience is valuable.

“Until you see an audience respond,” Warren says, “you don’t know what you have.”

‘New Works Festival’
When: “Players in the Game,” 7:30 p.m. Friday, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday July 22-23 ; “Unreasonable Doubt,” 7:30 p.m. July 29, 3 and 7:30 p.m. July 30; “The Death Bite,” 7:30 p.m. Aug. 5, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 6; “Snap,” 7:30 p.m. Aug. 12 and 19, 3 and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 13 and 20
Where: Phoenix Theatre’s Little Theatre, 100 E. McDowell Road How much: $8 for staged readings, $12 for full production of “Snap”
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