The Chirp

Check out these no-fee submission opportunities for full-length plays!
McKnight National Residency and Commission
Deadline: December 13, 2018
The McKnight National Residency and Commission aims to support an established playwright from outside Minnesota who demonstrates a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence. Recipients will spend the year creating a new play script over the course of several residencies in Minnesota. Benefits include a $15,000 commission, at least two U.S. round-trip airline tickets, housing during the residency period, up to $5,750 in workshop funds to support the development of the play, and a public reading of the commissioned play. MORE INFO
The Premiere Play Festival
Deadline: December 15, 2018
Premiere Stages is committed to supporting emerging and regional playwrights by developing and producing new plays. Since 2005, the Premiere Play Festival has offered playwrights the opportunity to develop their work in an encouraging, focused environment through discussions, rehearsals, readings, workshops, and Equity productions. MORE INFO
B Street Theatre New Comedies Festival
Deadline: December 15, 2018
B Street will select four plays to receive staged readings in the festival. Following the festival, the audience members who attended all four readings will vote to select which script they would like to see fully produced on the B Street Theatre Mainstage. Their selection will be vetted by B Street Artistic Staff and the winning script will receive a full production on the Mainstage within a year of the festival closing. MORE INFO
DYSPLA_storymakers residency
Deadline: December 16, 2018
DYSPLA is currently accepting pitch ideas from dyslexic and Neurodivergent artists for their writer's residency and welcomes submission from anyone regardless of experience. The residency will be tailored to each resident and will take place in London throughout 2019. Along with Surgery Scripts sessions, dramaturgy, a rehearsed reading and mentoring, DYSPLA will provide travel subsidy for anyone outside of London, desk space and rehearsal rooms. MORE INFO
JAGfest 3.0
Deadline: December 28, 2018
Every February for the past two years, JAG has invited African-American artists to spend a week in White River Junction, Vermont to further the development of a new play or solo performance. Over the course of the one-week residency, three-five projects receive an intensive workshop, constructive feedback, a staged reading for the public at Briggs Opera House and the attention of a dramaturg, actors and JAG staff. MORE INFO
Neukom Literary Arts Award For Playwriting
Deadline: December 31, 2018
The Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College is accepting submissions for the 2019 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for Playwriting, for plays addressing the question “What does it mean to be a human in a computerized world?” The award comes with a $5,000 honorarium as well as a support for a two-stage development process with table readings at local arts festivals. MORE INFO
NYFA Artist Fellowship for Playwriting/Screenwriting
Deadline: January 23, 2018
For over 30 years, in partnership with New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts has awarded Artist Fellowships of $7,000 to individual originating artists living and working in New York State and/or Indian Nations located therein for unrestricted use. MORE INFO
Headwaters New Play Festival
Deadline: February 17th OR when 250 submissions are received (which will probably come sooner!)
A weeklong workshop where selected plays are developed with a team of professional theater artists and receive public readings. Headwaters is the source of new plays of the West. However, our definition of West is extremely broad. It may include plays set in the current, historic, or mythic western United States; plays that reflect the diverse cultures and experiences of the West; plays that examine the American urban/rural divide; and plays that completely re-imagine what “West” means. MORE INFO