Tennessee Playwrights Studio is a playwright development lab and theatre production company that was founded in 2018 by Kenley Smith and Molly Breen to offer in-state playwrights the opportunity to develop fresh, incisive scripts that reflect a changing world and to produce new works by Tennessee playwrights.

In 2019, they broadened their scope to include theatre production of projects developed in Tennessee, and their first World Premiere production was MAIDENS by Kenley Smith. In January of 2021, they formed a partnership between TPS and two of the ‘most productive and dynamic Black-owned theatre companies in Nashville’: Destiny Theatre Experience and SistaStyle Productions for collaboration on the production of new works and educational programs, such as their TPS Talks and TPS Scripts. Their 2022 Season included four world-premiere productions. They are a resident company of the Darkhorse Theater in Nashville, TN.