1. JONATHAN LARSON GRANT
Deadline: October 4th
Website: https://americantheatrewing.org/program/jonathan-larson-grants/
The Jonathan Larson Grants are intended to honor and recognize emerging musical theatre artists. Composers, lyricists, and librettists who work in musical theatre are the focus of the grants. ATW is committed to serving artists who are creating new, fully producible works for the theatre, and advancing the art form. The grants do not honor a specific piece or project. Individuals as well as collaborative teams are welcome to apply. United States citizenship is not a requirement to receive the grant, but you must be eligible to work in the U.S. and reside/work here on at least a part-time basis and submitted work should be predominately in English. There is no age restriction although the focus is on individuals in their early to mid-career who have not yet received a significant level of acclaim (and attendant income) in their field.
To submit, go to: https://americantheatrewing.org/program/jonathan-larson-grants/
2. MILLAY COLONY OF ARTISTS
Deadline: October 8th
Website: https://www.millaycolony.org/
This small artist’s colony occupies the former estate of Edna St. Vincent Millay in upstate New York, offering two-week and month-long residencies to six or seven artists between the months of April and November. Unlike many other residencies, they don’t emphasize social events or speakers, instead preferring for you to focus on producing your art. There are no costs, and food is included. You can also apply for a virtual residency or a group residency if you’re collaborating with partners. Application deadlines are March 1 and October 1 each year; there’s a $40 application fee or $60 for the late deadlines (March 8 and October 8).
3. NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP'S 2050 Fellowship
Deadline: October 10th
website: https://airtable.com/shrBOFcvwV3o2a10I
The 2050 Fellowship is a yearlong residency for emerging playwrights and directors. The 2050 Fellowship provides a space for experimentation, artistic and administrative support, and mentorship. The 2050 Fellows are emerging artists who, with their unique voices, give us perspective on the world in which we live; and who challenge us all to contend with this changing world.
NYTW will accept up to six playwright or director 2050 Artistic Fellows per season. These fellowships will entail a one year commitment from June to June.
NYTW’s 2050 Fellowships consists of five basic components:
Monthly fellowship meetings where fellows meet with each other and artists from the NYTW community to discuss craft, aesthetics, and artistic development
Access to rehearsal space and two opportunities to share works-in-progress with the NYTW Artistic staff and entire fellowship cohort
Mentorship from the NYTW Artistic staff and contemporary theatre artists
An invitation to participate in the artistic life of the theatre by attending staff meetings, developmental readings, dress rehearsals, and other NYTW functions
A three-day weekend retreat at the start and end of the fellowship
2050 Fellows are awarded a modest stipend and an artistic development fund to support fellowship projects, attend performances, research and travel.
The 2050 Fellowship is named in celebration of the U.S. Census Bureau’s projection that by the year 2050, there will be no single racial or ethnic majority in the United States.
This projection provokes thoughts at New York Theatre Workshop about the transformations that will take place in the American landscape – technologically, environmentally, demographically and artistically. They are a catalyst for broader questions about our moral and artistic future.
The 2050 Artistic Fellowship is an open application process. To apply to the 2050 Artistic Fellowship, please submit the following by October 10th at 5pm:
1. A completed online form, that includes contact/personal information.
2. In a Single PDF to be uploaded into the form with your name as the subject:
A) In a total of 750 words or less, please respond to the following questions:
i) What kind of work are you interested in making? Why?
ii) What about a fellowship at New York Theatre Workshop specifically appeals to you as an artist?
B) Resume
4. EUGENE O’NEILL CENTER: NATIONAL PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE
Deadline: October 11th
Website: https://theoneill.submittable.com/submit
The National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center is the country’s premiere program for new play development. Every summer, six to eight unproduced works are selected from a pool of 1,000+ submissions for a week-long, playwright-driven workshop on the O’Neill’s campus in beautiful Waterford, CT. Each play is matched with a team of industry-leading directors, dramaturgs, and actors for an intensive 30-hour rehearsal period, culminating in two public, script-in-hand staged readings. At every step in the process, the O’Neill strives to foster an inclusive, collaborative environment in which artistic exploration and experimentation is encouraged. The upcoming National Playwrights Conference will be held June 26 - July 29 2019. All genres and styles of drama are welcome to submit, including one-acts and solo pieces. NPC does not develop music theater works, though you may submit such work to the National Music Theater Conference. The play must not have had a professional production, or be scheduled to have a professional production, prior to July 31, 2020.
$35 Application Fee
This fee covers the costs associated with the administration of the NPC application process. Please note that applications will not be considered complete until this fee is settled.
5. BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
Deadline: October 15th
Website: http://www.playwrightsfoundation.org
The Bay Area Playwrights Festival is one of the oldest and most successful new play festivals in the US. Established in 1976 by Robert Woodruff, the festival has continuously discovered original and distinctive new voices in the theater, and invested in the development of their work. It has offered over 500 exceptional, gifted and diverse emerging national writers a showcase for their newest work within an intensive creative crucible. Many prize winning, nationally significant playwrights got their first professional experiences at the BAPF. The Festival’s ongoing success in discovering and supporting emerging writers is its enduring legacy.
DETAILS
***Submissions for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival are open to any playwrights living in North America and writing primarily in English who consider themselves either an emerging or mid-career playwright, including PF alumni. While admittedly somewhat fungible, we define those terms as follows: ’emerging’ refers to playwrights who are relatively early in their careers – student, recent playwriting program graduate (up to 3 years), or alternatively, who have had 0-3 professional (paid) productions of their work. We define ‘mid-career’ as playwrights who have received more than 3 professional productions, and who are generally working professional playwrights, but not yet fully established with multiple regional LORT productions. Please email literary@playwrightsfoundation.org if you have any questions about whether you are eligible.
2020 Festival Dates: July 9 – 27th
Retreat: A pre-festival weekend retreat (July 9-11) prior to rehearsal brings together artistic teams and playwrights to share work, thoughts and feedback with other festival participants. It is mandatory for playwrights to be in residence for the entire retreat and festival period.
Financial arrangement: Minimum $600 Stipend, travel, housing.
Award notification: The playwrights selected for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival will be notified by or before April 15th, 2020.
Six plays will be chosen for the 43rd Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Playwrights will be paired with an artistic team comprised of a professional dramaturg, director, and actors, and other artists as needed. The lead artistic team members will go on a 3-day retreat the weekend prior to the festival, and will subsequently receive two staged readings over
6. GREAT PLAINS THEATRE CONFERENCE
deadline: October 15th
website: http://www.gptcplays.com/submit-your-play-to-gptc/
The Great Plains Theatre Conference provides opportunities for participants to interact with and have their work seen by a host of national theatre professionals and scholars.
Theatre WorkShops, Luncheon Panels and daily PlayLab and MainStage Series readings comprise the foundation of the Conference.
Dramaturgy is provided by national dramaturg for each playwright, to providing support before, during and after the Conference
PlayFest is an evening theatre festival for the community and seeks to give voice to the stories that have the power to unite and inspire diverse audiences.
Design Wing brings five emerging designers from across the country to become immersed in the play development from a visual perspective.
Young Dramatists Fellowship Program provides local high school playwrights with access to some of the country’s top plays and playwrights.
GPTC invites and welcomes a number of distinguished and nationally known playwrights, directors and actors each year. These guest artists are in place to nurture and mentor new and emerging playwrights and Conference attendees through various workshops, MainStage and PlayLab feedback sessions and seminars. Each year, the Conference also hosts an honored playwright who is featured throughout the week and recognized for their body of work during PlayFest.
The submission period may close prior to October 15th if the submission limit of 1000 plays is reached. Check back here for updates on the number of submissions received to-date.
Twenty plays will be selected for PlayLabs.
All playwrights who are selected will receive a $500 stipend, travel/airfare to Omaha, eight nights lodging, daily breakfast/lunch, and select evening meals. Playwrights whose scripts are chosen must agree to attend the entire conference (May 27 – June 2), work with local actors and directors, and lend full support to other playwrights throughout the Conference week.
7. A BLADE OF GRASS FELLOWSHIP
Deadline: October 16th
Website: http://www.abladeofgrass.org/fellowship-program/
We believe in the power of socially engaged artists to participate meaningfully in creating a more just, equitable, sustainable, joyful, and compassionate future. We know this means that artists must take time and care to develop relationships built on mutual trust, as well as work with diverse non-arts partners and communities. We understand there are no ready-made roadmaps or guaranteed outcomes for this type of work, and are committed to learning how artists navigate these processes and relationships.
Our fellowship program is meant to support courageous artists in creating exchanges, experiences, and structures that highlight seemingly intractable social problems, inspire audiences, and energize folks to participate in and sustain long-term social change work. This is hard and time-consuming organizational, intellectual, and emotional work.
We are committed to providing relatively unrestricted funding that incorporates a collaborative research component. Additionally, field research replaces grant reporting written by the artist, and is grounded in the goals and areas of inquiry defined by the artist and the perspective of project participants.
Selected Fellows will receive:
$20,000 in minimally restricted support
Comprehensive written field research reports that utilize action research methodology
Expenses paid 2-day orientation retreat in NYC to engage a cohort of peer artists and A Blade of Grass staff and board (a requirement for the fellowship)
Ongoing invitations to networking events for all A Blade of Grass Fellows and alumni twice annually (attendance voluntary)
Ongoing promotion of fellow’s projects through A Blade of Grass social media networks and website
In addition to direct artist support, another primary goal of ABOG is to make the “invisible” parts of socially engaged art visible. We do this through documentary films, publications, web content, and public programming. However, these content collaborations are not an obligation of the fellowship, and will be based on mutual interest under a separate contract.
Fellowship Projects may become the focus of A Blade of Grass content and programming including:
Curriculum and advocacy that advance the field of socially engaged art
Inclusion in our biannual magazine (available in print and free online)
Participation in documentary videos focused on curatorial themes of interest to the field
Other web content (podcasts, interviews, critical essays)
Participation in ongoing public programs
8. REVA SHINER COMEDY AWARD
Deadline: October 31st
Website: https://newplays.org/submit-a-play/reva-shiner-comedy/
Reva Shiner Comedy Award presents an unpublished full-length comedy with a cash prize of $1,000, a full production as part of the Bloomington Playwrights Project’s Mainstage season, along with travel reimbursement.
DETAILS
"Full-length" plays should have a complete running time of between 1 hour 15 minutes (75 minutes) to 2 hours 15 minutes (135 minutes).
Plays submitted must be unpublished at the time of submission.
Each submission should be sent to BPP via email. Send your email to literarymanager@newplays.org
Your email should include the following:
Tell us for which competition you are submitting: Reva Shiner Comedy or the script Woodward Newman Drama
Tell us your name, phone number, and the name of your Play
Tell us how you are satisfying the $10 administrative fee
Agent submitted scripts require no fee.
If via Dramatist Guild membership, attach a copy of your DG card to the email
If you have paid via Paypal on our website indicate your confirmation number and the email address used.
Paypal is preferred, but if you can’t pay on-line, you may send a check or Money Order, (must be from a US bank). Tell us the check or Money Order number. Make it payable to “BPP” and mail to BPP, 107 W 9th ST, Bloomington, IN 47404
Attach a PDF file containing your script with the following information included in the following order:
Title page with author name
Synopsis (1 page or less)
Character list/breakdown
Production history for the play—Include readings and productions
A brief bio of the playwright
Full Script
Submissions that fail to include all requested information in the order listed will be disqualified from the contest.
Plays submitted in previous years will be accepted.
Two separate submissions per playwright per annual competition are allowed as long as each submission has all the required materials.
9. RICHARD ROGERS AWARD
Deadline: November 1st
Website: https://artsandletters.org/awards/richard-rodgers-award/
The Richard Rodgers Awards were created and endowed by Richard Rodgers in 1978 for the development of the musical theater. These awards subsidize full productions, studio productions, and staged readings by nonprofit theaters in New York City of works by composers and writers who are not already established in this field. Applications from individuals as well as collaborators are accepted. The term "musical theater" is understood to include musicals, plays with songs, thematic revues, or any comparable work. The submission of innovative and experimental work is encouraged. The work submitted must be of significant length to fill an evening; it may consist of a group of smaller, related pieces but only completed works will be considered.
10. ACP
Deadline: November 14th
website: https://www.queenscouncilarts.org/acp-artists
The Artist Commissioning Program (ACP) awards Queens-based choreographers, playwrights, and composers $10,000 each towards the creation of a new, original work. This program democratizes the traditional commissioning process, which has historically been reserved for a privileged few. The ACP supports projects that add to the canon of American art by telling an untold story of underrepresented person(s) relevant to the neighborhoods in Queens. Two things make ACP unique: 1) its aim to fill gaps in American culture, and 2) its format of pairing artists with a cohort of "Art Commissioners."
1. FILLING GAPS IN AMERICAN CULTURE
ACP's priority is to support artists who present a fresh perspective by creating work that defies the cultural mainstream, privileges underrepresented identities, and/or speaks to the cultural diversity of Queens by telling an untold story of underrepresented person(s). Artists’ projects should highlight the stories of individual protagonists (e.g. heroine(s), hero(s), characters) in their proposed works to give underrepresented people a vision of themselves as leading characters. The new work should be replicable, capable of being interpreted and produced for dance, music, or theatre by other artist(s) or third parties throughout the borough, city, and country (e.g. if a high school or off-broadway theatre wanted to produce your work, they could do so - think Summer Stock or Swan Lake). By commissioning artists to materialize such works, the ACP aims to fill gaps in American culture by actively adding to the art historical canon. In doing so, the ACP aims to create a more democratic cultural sector that is more inclusive of the diverse narratives, cultural backgrounds, and values associated with our borough and nation.
11. PUBLIC THEATRE'S EMERGING WRITERS GROUP
Deadline: Nov 29th
website: https://publictheater.org/programs/emerging-writers-group/
The Emerging Writers Group is a component of The Public Writers Initiative, a long-term program that provides key support and resources for writers at every stage of their careers. It creates a fertile community and fosters a web of supportive artistic relationships across generations.
Writers are selected bi-annually and receive a two-year fellowship at The Public which includes a stipend. Staged readings of works by Emerging Writers Group members are presented in the Spotlight Series at The Public. The playwrights also participate in a bi-weekly writers group led by The Public’s New Work department and master classes led by established playwrights. Additionally, they have a chance to observe rehearsals for productions at The Public, receive career development advice from mid-career and established writers, and receive artistic and professional support from the literary department and Public artistic staff. Members of the group also receive complimentary tickets to Public Theater shows, invited dress rehearsals, and other special events, as well as a supplemental stipend for tickets to productions at other theaters.
Receive stipend of $7,500
Participate in a biweekly writers group led by The Public’s New Work Department
Receive at least one reading at The Public in the Emerging Writers Group Spotlight Series Reading Series
Participate in master classes led by established playwrights
Observe rehearsals for productions at The Public
Receive an additional stipend for theater tickets to productions at other theaters
Receive complimentary tickets to Public Theater shows, invited dress rehearsals and other special events
Receive artistic support and professional development guidance from the literary department and artistic staff
Requirements for Eligibility
Cannot have professional representation for playwriting including, but not limited to, agent, manager or lawyer.
Cannot be a full-time student at any point during the duration of the program.
Cannot be enrolled in any academic playwriting course during the duration of the program.
Must not have had productions in New York other than those using the showcase code or in an off-off Broadway theater with 99 or fewer seats. (If your New York show used a higher contract tier than the showcase code, you are not eligible to apply. If your New York show received a festival production in a theater with more than 99 seats and did not use an Equity contract, you are eligible to apply.)
Must live within 90 minutes to The Public Theater via car or rail.
Must be able to attend evening meetings at The Public Theater every other week in 2020 and 2021 as well as other events throughout the year, such as master classes, retreats, observerships and other special events at The Public.
Regular attendance is mandatory and therefore applicants should view the program as a two-year-long commitment.
Must be available for an in-person interview in early March 2020.
12. PREMIERE PLAY FESTIVAL
Deadline: December 1st
Website: http://www.premierestagesatkean.com/play-festival
Through the Premiere Play Festival, Premiere Stages has developed many plays that have gone on to have successful productions in New York and at regional theatres throughout the country. We strive to facilitate relationships between writers and theatre professionals who we think will respond to their work, in hopes that plays developed at Premiere will go on to subsequent productions. We offer Play Festival winners the option to retain the coveted “World Premiere” brand on their plays. Additionally, Premiere’s productions are consistently reviewed, scouted by major publishing houses, and honored by the American Theatre Critics Association.
Submissions due DEC 1 2019
Premiere Stages will accept submissions of unproduced plays written by playwrights affiliated with the greater metropolitan area from September 1, 2019 through December 1, 2019. All plays submitted to the festival are evaluated by a panel of professional theatre producers, directors, dramaturgs, playwrights, and publishers. Four finalists are subsequently selected for public Equity readings in March 2020.
Awards
Following the Spring readings, one play is selected for an Equity production in the Premiere Stages 2020 Mainstage Season and receives an award of $2500. The runner-up receives a 29-hour staged reading and $1000. The two other finalists will each be awarded $750.
Premiere Stages is committed to supporting a diverse group of writers; playwrights of all backgrounds, ages, and experience levels are encouraged to apply.
Submission Guidelines
All plays must be submitted as a PDF.
Plays must be full-length and have a cast size of no more than eight.
Plays must be unpublished and unproduced (readings and workshops are okay), with no productions and/or publication currently scheduled through September 2020.
Playwrights must have strong affiliations with the greater metropolitan area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware).
Musicals, adaptations (of existing plays or other sources), and solo shows are not eligible.
Submissions are limited to one script per playwright.
Please contact Premiere Stages to inquire about submitting a script that has been previously submitted.
Playwrights must be available for the development of their script (see the 2020 schedule table).
Submissions are accepted September 1, 2019 through 11:59 p.m. on December 1, 2019. Submissions sent early in the submission window are strongly encouraged.
All plays must be submitted as a PDF to: premierestages.submittable.com/submit. Hard copies will not be accepted.
