PORT TOWNSEND — A free preview of the 2012 Playwrights’ Festival will unfold at the Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., tonight.

The event is the annual Playwright Award Ceremony, honoring local writers whose scripts have been selected for the 16th annual Playwrights’ Festival, to open Feb. 9 in Port Townsend.

After a 5:30 p.m. ceremony honoring the playwrights, excerpts of their plays will be performed.

Admission is free to the public, and light refreshments will flow.

Theater lovers are invited to come see the vignettes and mingle with the people who wrote them: Jerry Chawes, Judith Glass Collins, Deborah Daline, Art Reitsch, David H. Schroeder, Sandy Diamond, Steve Fetter, Jack O’Connor, Mark Rose and Richard Weston.

Port Townsend Deputy Mayor Michelle Sandoval and Kris Nelson will make presentations to the six writers.

The Playwrights’ Festival also will feature visiting writer Constance Congdon. Congdon’s one-person play “Is Sex Possible?” will take the Key City Playhouse stage at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16.

For much more on the festival and other Key City activities, visit www.KeyCityPublicTheatre.org or phone 360-379-0195.