David Mark Cohen came to The University of Texas at Austin in 1990 and served as head of the Playwriting Program. He brought with him an avid love for the creation of new work, which today is a core value of the department.
Inaugurated in 2001 as a new play festival, The Cohen New Works Festival has evolved from a six–week presentation of two dozen plays, dance works and readings produced in the spare time of students and faculty to a fully–mounted biennial celebration of all mediums of student–generated new work. It is the largest festival of its kind, run and organized entirely by a committee of graduate and undergraduate students, with the support of faculty co–producers.