GET WHAT YOU WANT
July 2026
40 Opportunities · Residencies · Fellowships · Competitions · Grants · Prizes
Nearly everything below is free to enter; the exceptions are a handful of residencies and fellowships with a modest (usually waivable) application fee, plus a few paid-entry items added this month — the Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize, New Art City Theatre, and Vermont Studio Center — where real stipends, travel, or development support make the cost worth it.
July 2026 Deadlines
Yaddo — Artist Residency, Summer Application Cycle
Deadline: July 1, 2026, 11:59pm ET (portal opened June 1; closes early if the 1,300-application cap is hit)
Website: yaddo.org/apply · App fee: $35 (waivers available)
If you write plays, this is the one. Yaddo is one of two or three residencies in the country where the prestige of the program is not incidental to its usefulness. Playwrights apply under the Literature panel; the specific category is “drama, librettos, and graphic novels.” The terms: private bedroom, workspace, three prepared meals a day, and two weeks to two months at the historic Saratoga Springs estate, covering residencies from November 2026 through June 2027. No residency fees. Travel access grants are available.
The Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize 2026 — theme “Joy”
Deadline: July 1, 2026, 11:59pm GMT (roughly 7pm ET today — a same-day sprint, not a project)
Website: alpinefellowship.com/theatre-prize · £3,000 / £1,000 / £1,000 · £10 entry · International
An international, English-language playwriting prize on this year’s theme, Joy — open to any nationality, any length, writers 18 and up. One completed play per entry; if your work reads as a response to the theme, it qualifies. The winner and two runners-up receive £3,000, £1,000, and £1,000, plus an invitation to the Alpine Fellowship’s annual symposium, with up to £500 in travel and accommodation and meals covered during the event.
The catch for a July issue: entries close at 11:59pm GMT on July 1, which is early evening Eastern the day this lands — so if it’s going to happen, it happens now. The Fellowship explicitly bars AI-generated writing. £10 per entry via Submittable, and you may enter more than once as separate submissions.
Savage Wonder — Veteran Playwriting Competitions
Deadline: July 3, 2026
Website: savagewonder.org/submit-your-work · Full-length $5,000 / $3,500 / $2,500 · Ten-minute $1,000 / $750 / $500 · No fee
Two competitions, one full-length and one ten-minute, with real prize money down to third place and no entry fee. Eligibility is the filter: current or former US military, law enforcement, fire service, EMS, foreign service, intelligence service, or DoD personnel, and their immediate family. Plays must be unproduced and unpublished.
CRY HAVOC Company — PlayList: Road Trip (4th cycle)
Deadline: July 6, 2026
Website: cryhavoccompany.org/playlist · Stipend paid · No fee · NYC-area only
A short-play development series for New York–area playwrights. Each selected writer builds a new ten-minute, two-character play inspired by a road-trip song and an American roadside attraction, developed through several feedback sessions and ending in an Equity 29-hour public reading.
Open to any background or experience level; the only hard requirement is that applicants be local to New York. No fee, and writers are paid a stipend for the work. This is a genuine development pipeline rather than a contest — useful for anyone who wants structured feedback and a reading with professional actors.
Gather by the Ghost Light — Stage Frights 2026
Deadline: July 10, 2026
Website: gatherbytheghostlight.com/submissions · $50 per selected play · No fee
Horror short plays — 15 pages max, two or more characters, no one-person shows — for a live October show in Augusta, Georgia, released afterward as a podcast and YouTube episode. Blind submission, up to two scripts per writer, no fee. Six plays are selected; each writer is paid $50 and published in the Stage Frights anthology.
Worth noting for the year-round writer: the company also takes “Stand Alone Stories” (20 to 60 pages, any genre, $50 to $100) and audio-drama series pitches on a rolling basis, so the relationship doesn’t end when the October window closes.
New Art City Theatre — Festival ’27 (Ventura, California)
Deadline: July 10, 2026, 9pm PT — ⚠ confirm the exact ’27 date at the festival page before submitting
Website: newartcitytheatre.org/festival · $1,000 stipend + travel + housing · $25 fee (reductions available)
One of the rare paid-entry calls where the artist support is real enough to justify the fee. NACT — run by Broadway and West End veterans Beverly and Kirby Ward — takes full-length plays and musicals (two acts, or a one-act running at least 75 minutes) that are unpublished and have never had a full production. Submissions are read blind; up to four are selected for a week-long residency in Ventura with a professional director and cast, culminating in two public staged readings and audience talkbacks.
Selected writers get travel, housing, and a $1,000 stipend — they fly you out and put you up for the week. Festival ’26 drew 364 submissions for four slots, so it’s competitive, but the development is substantive rather than a one-night reading. The $25 admin fee has reduced-fee options.
Jewish Writers Institute — Screenwriters Lab
Deadline: July 15, 2026 (reviewed on a rolling basis — earlier is stronger)
Website: jewishwritersinstitute.org/screenwriters · $10,000 stipend · Travel + accommodations covered · US-based
A year-long fellowship for screenwriters developing feature or television scripts that explore Jewish themes, culture, and identity — aimed squarely at the mainstream marketplace rather than a heritage-museum framing. It actively recruits writers who want to bring that dimension of their identity into commercial work rather than leave it at the door.
Fellows receive a $10,000 stipend, one-on-one mentorship from working producers and writers, monthly virtual script-critique sessions, and three in-person seminars in Los Angeles, New York, and Israel, with travel and accommodations covered. Past guests include Marc Platt, Rachel Bloom, Meg LeFauve, and Mayim Bialik. Crucially, the program has assembled affiliated media financiers who track projects in development and attend the final pitch presentations — a fellowship with a real pipeline, not just a line on a resume.
PEN America — U.S. Writers Aid Initiative
Deadline: July 15, 2026 (second window October 1, 2026); reviewed rolling within each window
Website: pen.org/writers-aid · Award: up to $2,000
Up to $2,000 in emergency financial assistance for professional writers — including playwrights and screenwriters — facing a short-term crisis. Two application windows a year, July 15 and October 1. Applicant must be a professional writer based in the United States.
Loghaven Artist Residency
Deadline: July 15, 2026, midnight ET (window June 1 – July 15)
Website: loghaven.org/residencies/apply · $850/week stipend · Travel subsidy + materials · App fee $25 (waivable)
One of the most financially generous residencies in the country: ninety wooded acres in Knoxville, Tennessee, restored log cabins with purpose-built studio space, and a living stipend of $850 per week. Add a travel subsidy on a sliding scale from $400 to $800 and up to $200 in materials reimbursement, with room and board fully covered. Theater is an explicitly eligible discipline.
Applicants must be at least 21, live more than 120 miles from Knoxville, be able to work legally in the US, and not be enrolled in a degree program. Theater work samples are two or three videos or PDFs totaling no more than 15 minutes or 20 pages. Collaborative teams up to nine may apply together. Applications go through SlideRoom only; fee-waiver requests must reach info@loghaven.org before noon on July 15. Highly competitive national selection.
Ucross Foundation — Residency & Fellowship for Native American Writers
Deadline: July 15, 2026, 11:59pm MT
Website: ucrossfoundation.org/residency-program · General app fee $40 · Native Fellowship: $2,000 award + $1,500 stipend, no fee
Residencies on a 20,000-acre working ranch in Sheridan, Wyoming for the Spring 2027 session (February through early June): private studio, accommodations, chef-prepared meals, and uninterrupted time, provided at no charge. Playwrights are eligible; the general application fee is $40. Ucross is regarded alongside Yaddo and MacDowell as a top-tier American residency.
The dedicated Fellowship for Native American Writers carries a $2,000 award, a $1,500 travel-and-costs stipend, a featured public reading, and no application fee, for Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and First Nations writers (enrolled members of a state- or federally-recognized Tribe, Pueblo, Nation, Native Community, or Alaskan Native Village).
New City Players Lab — theme “America at 250”
Deadline: July 23, 2026
Website: newcityplayers.org/lab · No fee
Ten-page-maximum plays for this Fort Lauderdale company’s lab, free to submit. The prompt is a good one: write a play in which a rule everyone follows is questioned for the first time.
A clean, no-cost short-play call with a sharp thematic hook. For writers with something that fits the prompt, or who work well against a tight constraint, it’s an easy submission with a real developmental home behind it.
Stone Canoe — Drama Submissions
Deadline: July 29, 2026
Website: stonecanoe.submittable.com/submit · Publication credit
Stone Canoe is an annual literary journal published by Syracuse University that has accepted short plays and dramatic excerpts as first-class literary submissions alongside poetry, fiction, and visual art since 2007. It is among the more serious literary journals in the Northeastern US and treats dramatic literature as a genuine genre rather than a novelty inclusion.
For a tight one-act, a standalone excerpt from a longer work, or formally experimental short dramatic writing — work that holds on the page as well as in the room — Stone Canoe offers publication in a reputable venue with regional and national readership. That credit carries real weight in grant and residency applications that ask for prior publication history. Submit via Submittable.
The Braid — Chutzpah & Salsa 2 (Salon Theatre)
Deadline: July 30, 2026 (call is live; confirm exact date on the submission-guidelines page)
Website: the-braid.org/submit · Honorarium + royalties · No fee
True personal stories (1,500 words maximum) from Latin Jews, adapted by dramaturgs and performed by professional actors at this Santa Monica company, with an honorarium plus royalties on any reprises. No fee.
The Alfred Fagon Award (UK)
Deadline: July 31, 2026, 5pm
Website: alfredfagonaward.co.uk/awards/2026 · £6,000 · Free to enter · UK residents only
The leading award for Black British playwrights: for the best new stage play by a writer of Caribbean or African descent permanently resident in the UK. The winner receives £6,000, with excerpts showcased at the ceremony.
Full-length, minimum 40 pages, double-spaced. TV, radio, and film scripts are not eligible. Free to enter; the shortlist is announced in November 2026. A UK-residency requirement makes this one to pass to eligible writers in your network rather than a general submission.
Masque & Spectacle — 10-Minute Plays (theme “Harvest”)
Deadline: July 31, 2026 (reading window May 1 – July 31)
Website: masqueandspectaclejournal.wordpress.com/submission-guidelines · No fee / no payment
An online arts and literary journal publishing one previously unpublished ten-minute play per writer, on the theme “Harvest.” No fee and no payment; the journal takes first electronic and non-exclusive archival rights, so your reprint options stay open.
August 2026 Deadlines
Steppenwolf Theatre Company — Unsolicited Play Submissions
Deadline: August 10–24, 2026 (annual two-week window)
Website: steppenwolf.org — play submission · Free · Unrepresented writers
One of the country’s leading theatres opens to unsolicited submissions from unrepresented writers for exactly two weeks each August, free of charge. Steppenwolf wants bold, complex, full-length plays with high stakes: no one-person plays, no musicals, casts of twelve or fewer (six or fewer fare best).
The package is deliberately lean — a bio, a one-paragraph synopsis, ten pages of sample dialogue, and a 200-word statement on why Steppenwolf is the right home. Paid literary staff read within four to six months. For an unrepresented writer with an ambitious full-length, this is a rare open door at a major house.
Playwrights Foundation — Resident Playwright Program
Deadline: Approx. August 11–26, 2026 (verify at the site — based on prior-year pattern)
Website: playwrightsfoundation.org/rpp-apply · Two-year cohort · Bay Area only
A two-year cohort residency based in San Francisco’s Bay Area. Four writers are selected per cycle and gain dramaturgical support, public presentations through the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and sustained institutional relationships with PF staff and the broader Bay Area theater ecosystem. The 2027–28 application is expected to open in August, following prior-year timing.
Applications are read holistically and not blind — full-length play, script sample, optional additional sample, resume, and narrative responses, names attached. All applicants are notified in December 2026. Eligibility is Bay Area–based playwrights with at least one full professional production. Fee waivers for economic hardship. Confirm the exact window when the portal opens.
Fondation Jan Michalski — Writer’s Residency (Switzerland)
Deadline: August 31, 2026 (applications open June 2, 2026)
Website: fondation-janmichalski.com/en/residences · Fully funded · CHF 400/week · No fee
Two-week to three-month residencies in private cabins at the foot of the Swiss Jura Mountains in Montricher, about an hour from Geneva. Fully funded: all travel covered, a CHF 400 weekly stipend for local transport and groceries, and breakfast and communal lunch daily. Seven independent cabins, each with kitchenette, desk, and bathroom, plus access to a substantial research library. Around 40 authors from around the world are hosted each year.
A fit note for playwrights: the Foundation’s stated priority is literary writers and translators, with its call reading “open to other disciplines as long as literature is at the heart of the project.” A playwright can absolutely apply, but the application should frame the work through its literary dimension — the text, the language, the architecture of the writing — rather than production. A script with a strong textual or research component is the stronger candidate. Notification December 2026; residencies begin January 2027.
September 2026 Deadlines
Stanley Drama Award — Wagner College
Deadline: September 1, 2026
Website: wagner.edu/performing-arts/stanley-drama · $2,000 · Reading fee $32
An annual $2,000 prize for an original full-length play, musical, or one-act series not professionally produced or trade-published. Established in 1957, it has one of the longer track records of any American playwriting prize — past winners include Terrence McNally’s This Side of the Door, Lonne Elder III’s Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, and Jonathan Larson’s Rent. That lineage isn’t decorative; the competition has repeatedly identified writers before the industry did.
Pay the $32 reading fee online at the Wagner portal, then email stanleydramaaward@wagner.edu with a PDF of the completed application, the manuscript, and payment confirmation; musicals should include digital links to the music. One submission per playwright; previously entered plays and former winners are not eligible. Winner and finalists announced Spring 2027. The September 1 date gives the full summer to get a script ready.
Theatre Three — 28th Annual Festival of One-Act Plays (2027)
Deadline: September 1, 2026
Website: theatrethree.com/one-act-play-submissions · $150 stipend · DG-approved contract · No fee
A long-running one-act festival in Port Jefferson, New York, with more than 140 world premieres since 1998 out of over 13,000 submissions. Five to eight plays are staged each season — real productions, not readings. Unproduced works only; no adaptations, children’s plays, or musicals. Maximum cast of 12, maximum length 30 minutes, simple or suggested settings.
Selected plays receive ten performances in winter–spring 2027 on Theatre Three’s Second Stage, a $150 stipend, a Dramatists Guild–approved contract, four complimentary tickets, and copies of all playbills, press, and production photos. The theatre covers all production costs and retains no future rights. One play per playwright, no entry fee; submit as a single PDF (title in all caps, then your name) to Jeffrey@theatrethree.com. Selected playwrights notified by early December 2026.
The Climate Playwriting Prize 2026 (Shakespeare’s Globe, UK)
Deadline: September 1, 2026 (submissions open June 2026)
Website: shakespearesglobe.com — climate playwriting prize · £15,000 + 18-month production option · Free to enter · UK / UK-based
A major UK prize led by Shakespeare’s Globe (with Climate Spring and Fern Culture) for plays that engage meaningfully with the climate and nature crisis as a key dramaturgical element — ‘climate’ defined expansively to include the social, political, and cultural conditions around it, not only the environmental ones. The winner receives £15,000, dramaturgical development to rehearsal draft with specialists at the Globe and partners, industry exposure, and an 18-month production option at the Globe.
Open to UK and UK-based playwrights writing in English who have some prior professional script experience. Full-length, unproduced (beyond short fringe runs or rehearsed readings); musicals and work written specifically for children are ineligible. Free to enter; winner announced autumn/winter 2026. One for eligible writers in your UK network.
Hambidge Center Residency — Spring 2027 Session
Deadline: September 15, 2026 (portal opens August 1)
Website: hambidge.org/guidelines-apply · Fee $300/week (subsidized) · App fee $30 (waivable) · Distinguished Fellowships add $700
The oldest residency in the Southeast, on 600 forested acres in the North Georgia mountains, with playwriting and screenwriting among its disciplines. The residency fee runs $300 a week (heavily subsidized against true cost), with a $30 application fee that can be waived. Merit-based Distinguished Fellowships waive the fee entirely and add a $700 stipend.
Playwrights submit 10 to 15 pages plus a synopsis and proposal. Note the setting: rustic, remote, no cell service — which is the point for writers who need to disappear into a draft. Portal opens August 1 for the Spring 2027 session.
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) — Summer 2027 Period
Deadline: September 15, 2026
Website: vcca.com/apply · App fee $30 (waivers) · Fully funded fellowships available
One of the largest year-round residencies in the country, in Amherst, Virginia, with playwriting and screenwriting as a dedicated review category. This deadline places fellows May through August 2027. Each resident gets a private studio, a private bedroom with en-suite bath, and three prepared meals a day, alongside roughly 20 artists across disciplines.
Applications go through SlideRoom with a $30 fee (waivers available). A range of fully funded fellowships is offered at each deadline, integrated into the general application, plus need-based aid year-round. For a full-length in progress that needs sustained time, VCCA is one of the highest-value programs going.
Vermont Studio Center — Artist & Writer Residency
Deadline: September 30, 2026, 11:59pm ET (window opens August 15)
Website: vermontstudiocenter.org/apply · Fellowships every cycle · all residents partial, ~40% full
One of the country’s larger residencies, on a walkable historic campus in Johnson, Vermont, along the Gihon River. Not theatre-specific, but playwriting and screenwriting are explicitly named among the accepted writing genres, so a playwright fits cleanly when the project is framed as dramatic writing or text-centered work. This deadline covers sessions running roughly summer 2026 into early 2027; sessions are two, three, or four weeks, with a private studio, a private room, and three meals a day.
The money is the headline: every accepted resident receives at least a partial fellowship, about 40% receive full fellowships, and the true value of four weeks runs north of $12,000. Partial-fellowship fees are $2,700 (two weeks), $3,825 (three), and $4,950 (four); a range of named fellowships, several carrying $1,000 stipends, is offered at each deadline. Applications are juried blind through SlideRoom by a rotating panel — if one cycle doesn’t land, the next jury is different. Pairs naturally with Hambidge, VCCA, and MacDowell for a fall residency push.
Mark Your Calendar — Opening Soon
Princeton Arts Fellowship — 2027–28 Cycle
Deadline: Opens July 2026 · Deadline approx. September 10, 2026
Website: arts.princeton.edu/fellowships/princeton-arts-fellowship · $93,000/year × 2 years
$93,000 a year for two consecutive academic years at Princeton — one of the most financially significant fellowships in the country for early-career artists. Playwrights, directors, novelists, filmmakers, composers, designers, choreographers, and performance artists are all explicitly eligible. The teaching load is light: one undergraduate course per semester, or an artistic project developed with students in lieu of a course, leaving substantial protected time for your own work.
Princeton’s page currently reads that the next cycle opens in July 2026. Non-US citizens may apply; it can’t fund degree work; applicants may apply twice in a lifetime. Start assembling work samples and a project description now — this is one to prepare for rather than scramble toward.
Eugene O’Neill Theater Center — National Playwrights Conference 2027
Deadline: Opens early September 2026 · Deadline approx. September 18, 2026
Website: theoneill.org/npc · App fee $15 · Open, blind submission — no agent required
The most prestigious new-play development conference in the country: a summer residency in Waterford, Connecticut where selected plays get intense dramaturgical support, professional casts, and a structured process with some of the best play doctors in American theater. The open, blind submission process has been in place since the founding — no agent, no nomination, and scripts are read without writer names attached. The only barrier is the right to work in the US.
The 2026 window ran September 2–18, 2025, so expect the 2027 window to open in early September 2026 and close around September 18. Start the developmental-goals statement now — the application asks specifically what you hope to accomplish at the Conference, and the strongest applications are precise. At $15, it’s the lowest-cost submission for the highest-return development opportunity in the field.
MacDowell Fellowship — Spring/Summer 2027 Cycle
Deadline: Portal opens August 15, 2026 · Deadline September 10, 2026
Website: macdowell.org/apply · App fee $30 (waivers) · No residency fees
The most prestigious American artist residency, in Peterborough, New Hampshire, awarding fellowships in seven disciplines including Theatre, for residencies March through August 2027. About 300 artists are admitted a year, with artistic excellence the only criterion; acceptance runs around 9% in recent cycles. No application fee beyond the $30 SlideRoom charge, no residency fees, and need-based stipends and travel grants are available.
The current Fall/Winter 2026 cycle has closed; the Spring/Summer 2027 portal opens August 15. Alumni include Suzan-Lori Parks, Ayad Akhtar, Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Baldwin, and Charlie Kaufman. A MacDowell residency on a CV carries weight in grant applications, commission conversations, and production relationships well beyond the time on campus — the strongest applications are specific about the work, not the general wish for time and space. Start preparing now.
IASH / Traverse Theatre — Creative Fellowship (Edinburgh)
Deadline: Opens late summer 2026 · Deadline late September 2026
Website: iash.ed.ac.uk/iashtraverse-creative-fellowship · £12,000 · 10-month residency · International
One of the most distinctive international fellowships for playwrights: a ten-month placement split between the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh and the Traverse Theatre, one of Europe’s premier new-writing houses. The fellow receives £12,000, full access to IASH’s academic community and research resources, dramaturgical support from the Traverse team, and dedicated time to develop a new performance text.
It’s built for writers who want to interrogate urgent social, political, or cultural themes through theater and would benefit from the combination of rigorous academic exchange and a working producing theater. A free applicant webinar ran in September 2025; expect a similar session in 2026. Confirm the opening date and requirements when the 2027 round posts.
DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program — Literature Fellowship
Deadline: Opens approx. October 2026 · Deadline approx. December 15, 2026
Website: berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de · 12-month Berlin residency · International · Established artists
One of the world’s most respected residency programs: roughly 20 scholarships a year for international artists across visual arts, film, literature, and music. Playwrights apply in the literature category. Fellows receive a monthly stipend covering living costs and rent, a furnished apartment, round-trip travel (including for a partner and children who stay the full term), and optional health insurance and German-language courses, for a full 12 months in Berlin.
It’s designed for established artists with a developed voice and standing — not emerging writers — and DAAD is explicitly interested in work that critically engages historical and contemporary discourse rather than pure aesthetics. The 2027 cycle closed December 15, 2025; the 2028 cycle opens around October 2026. Flag it now.
Playwrights Realm — Writing Fellowship & Scratchpad Series
Deadline: Watch for fall 2026 opening
Website: playwrightsrealm.org · Writing Fellowship: $5,000 stipend, 9 months
The Realm’s Writing Fellowship is one of the strongest development investments in New York: four early-career playwrights get nine months of resources, workshops, and feedback plus a $5,000 stipend to develop a single new play, culminating in the INK’D Festival. The Scratchpad Series offers earlier-career, out-of-town, and musical-theater writers a paid week-long developmental process at a lower-stakes entry point. Both are confirmed operating for 2026.
The Realm has a real track record of selecting writers whose work then moves into production — development with forward momentum, not a holding pattern. The next cycle’s deadline typically lands in late summer or early fall; watch the site for the announcement.
Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for Playwriting — WATCH (2026 cycle not yet posted)
Deadline: July 31, 2026
Website: sites.dartmouth.edu — Neukom Lit Award for Playwriting · $5,000 + Northern Stage workshop & reading · No fee
A $5,000 honorarium plus a Northern Stage workshop and public reading for a full-length play addressing “What does it mean to be human in a computerized world?” It’s an excellent, free-to-enter award and belongs on the radar. But correct the calendar: Dartmouth’s own cycles have run on a spring timeline — submissions opened March 1 and closed May 1 for the 2025 round, with the winner (Avery Deutsch’s The Age of Mary) announced that fall. There is no confirmed July 31 deadline.
Rolling Deadlines
Woodward/Newman Award — Constellation Stage & Screen
Deadline: Rolling · Submit by August 31, 2026 for 2027–28 season consideration
Website: seeconstellation.org/get-involved/submit-play · $3,000 + full production · No fee
One of the only major US playwriting competitions with no entry fee and an ongoing, non-contest submission process. Started with support from Joanne Woodward, Newman’s Own Foundation, and the Newman family, it presents the best unpublished play of the year with a $3,000 cash prize (in lieu of royalties) and a full Mainstage production, with housing and transportation provided.
Submissions are read year-round; plays in by August 31, 2026 are considered for the 2027–28 season. Maximum two submissions per year. Any unpublished play submitted to Constellation — including via agent or direct contact — is eligible for the award and all season production slots, and scripts stay on file for two years. Contact: literary@seeconstellation.org.
The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig (Ireland)
Deadline: Rolling / ongoing
Website: tyroneguthrie.ie/Residency-Application-Form · Subsidized · No app fee · International
A historic country-house retreat in County Monaghan, Ireland, open to artists of all disciplines including playwrights, with dedicated writers’ facilities and a performance studio. No application fee; self-catering and full-board options are subsidized.
A useful wrinkle: a successful applicant receives an invitation letter that can support arts-council funding requests back home. Open to artists internationally.
Stiwdio Maelor (Corris, Wales)
Deadline: Rolling / year-round (responses usually within a week)
Website: stiwdiomaelor.com · Self-funded · No app fee · International
An artist-run residency in Snowdonia, Wales, welcoming writers including playwrights as individuals or groups, with unusually fast responses — usually within a week. No submission fee; the residency is self-funded (a modest charge for accommodation and studio), with flexible stays from one week to two months.
A separate sponsored residency is occasionally offered. For a self-directed writer who wants mountains and quiet without a competitive application cycle, this is a low-friction option.
Native Voices at the Autry — Script Submissions
Deadline: Rolling / year-round
Website: nativevoices.co/call-for-scripts · Honorarium + airfare + lodging
The only Equity theatre company in the country exclusively devoted to developing and producing new work by Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and First Nations playwrights. Multiple tracks run through the year: the Annual Playwrights Retreat and Festival (full-length), the Short Play Festival (10–30 minutes), and the First Look Series (workshops with directors and dramaturgs). Selected playwrights receive an honorarium, round-trip airfare, and lodging.
Full-length submissions should be primarily focused on Native experience and written by Native writers; the Short Play Festival works to annual themes posted on the site. If you have Native playwrights in your network who haven’t submitted here, put it in front of them.
Trade A Play Tuesday (Donna Hoke)
Deadline: Every Tuesday, year-round
Website: blog.donnahoke.com/trade-a-play-tuesday · Free peer feedback
A free peer-feedback exchange: submit a ten-minute play and receive same-day feedback, in exchange for reading ten pages of another writer’s work. Not a contest, but a reliable way to sharpen short work before it goes out to the festivals listed above.
Emergency & Hardship Grants
Dramatists Guild Foundation — Crisis Relief Grants
Deadline: Rolling, through December 14, 2026
Website: dgf.org/grants/crisis-relief-grants · Typically $2,000–$3,000
Emergency grants (typically $2,000 to $3,000) for theater writers facing a recent, unexpected, disruptive emergency — illness, eviction, fire, flood, or similar. For individual professional dramatists, 18 or older, in the US or its territories, with less than $15,000 in combined bank accounts. First-time applicants are prioritized; decisions usually come within a month.
Foundation for Contemporary Arts — Emergency Grants
Deadline: Rolling, year-round (apply 8–10 weeks before your public presentation)
Website: foundationforcontemporaryarts.org — emergency grants · $500–$3,000, project-based
Project-based grants of $500 to $3,000 for performing and visual artists with a sudden opportunity to present work publicly, or an unexpected expense on a project near completion with a committed date. Theater and performance qualify. Open to individual artists in the US or its territories with a US Tax ID; no fee.
Authors League Fund
Deadline: Rolling
Website: authorsleaguefund.org/apply · No-repayment assistance
Since 1917, no-strings assistance (not a loan — repayment isn’t required) for professional career writers in urgent need due to illness, medical bills, eviction, or major income loss. Dramatists qualify if their full-length plays have been produced in mid-size or large theaters or published by established presses. It does not help screenwriters, songwriters, or lyricists. Decisions often within 7 to 10 business days.
Entertainment Community Fund — Emergency Financial Assistance
Deadline: Rolling / ongoing
Website: entertainmentcommunity.org/am-i-eligible-help · Essentials: health care, housing, utilities
Emergency assistance for performing arts and entertainment professionals facing a critical financial need, covering essentials such as health care, housing, and utilities. Eligibility centers on documented professional earnings over recent years, so playwrights with qualifying theater income may be eligible.
