Admissions

New Dramatists is thrilled to announce that after two years of suspended admissions, we will resume admissions and accept applications for our 7-year residencies and company membership in the summer of 2022.  Please note that the presence of COVID remains unpredictable, and as such, with New Dramatists’ COVID protocols firmly in place, operations are adjusted accordingly to keep our community safe. Thank you for your understanding.

Applications for residency will be accepted online during the submissions window. Our admissions window is open for two weeks. Once it closes, New Dramatists staff takes a week to review submissions for completeness. If we discover items missing from your application packet, you will be notified and given a deadline by which to submit the missing materials.  If you do not respond before the deadline, your application will be deemed ineligible.

All U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for residency if they can meet the submission requirements, including 2 full-length original plays, a statement of intent, and a biography or resume.

Download and read the 2022-2023 Guidelines for Resident Company and 2022-2023 Application Information documents at the bottom of this page BEFORE beginning your application. Each year, to be responsive to recommendations from the selection panel and evolution in the theatre field, New Dramatists staff reviews and makes changes to our admissions process. Please read all materials carefully.

When Are New Applications Accepted?

The 2022-2023 submissions window opens on Friday, July 15 at 10am (EDT) and closes on Friday, July 29 at 5pm (EDT). New Dramatists staff will take a week to review submissions for completeness. If we discover items are missing from your application packet, you will be notified by Monday, August 8 at 10am (EDT), and given until Monday, August 15 at 5pm (EDT) to submit the missing materials.  If you do not respond before the deadline, your application will be deemed ineligible. All U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for residency if they can meet the submission requirements.

How Does the Selection Process Work?

PANELISTS: Over the course of ten months, from late August to June, a seven-person panel, comprised of New Dramatists’ current resident writers, alumni playwrights, and outside theatre professionals, read the submissions. During the first stage of review, an alumni volunteer group may assist the panel in reviewing submissions. The panel is completely different every year. Special efforts are made to balance the panel in terms of aesthetic sensibilities, gender, race, and age, as diversity is crucial to the adjudication process. The only people who know the panel members’ identities are the New Dramatists’ admissions staff.

CIRCULATION: All applicants submit two full-length works and designate an “A” play and a “B” play. All “A” plays are read. As applicants advance through the process, their “B” plays are read. For the Initial Round of plays, reading is blind, i.e. applicant names are not attached to the plays being read. In later rounds, names are disclosed to the readers. (In addition, each current resident playwright has the option to recommend one applicant who is guaranteed to have both the “A” and “B” plays read by different readers in the Initial Round. This does not impact the applicant’s status.)

DECISION-MAKING: The panel meets three times between January and June to discuss the plays and, by consensus, winnow the list of applicants and ultimately determine the incoming group.

NOTIFICATION: Please note, the admissions process takes approximately a year to complete. We will announce the new resident playwrights in June, 2023; however, status notifications are sent on a rolling basis. The first round of letters will be sent in February/March, the second round of letters will be sent in April/May, and the final round of letters will be sent in June.  No news is good news.

If your mailing address and/or other contact information changes, please notify @email.

What and How to Submit?

• To Begin Your Application, visit http://newdramatists.org/admissions and click on “Begin Application.” You will be prompted to create an online account and to verify your citizenship status. You will be able to return to your saved application to continue working until you complete the final tab and click “Submit Your Application”, at which point you will no longer have access.
   
• Enter or Copy-and-Paste a Statement of Intent the equivalent length of up to but no longer than a one-page letter. The Statement of Intent is introduced at the final meeting. At this point in the process, both of your plays have been read by the entire committee, who are tasked with intuiting who you are as a writer through your work. The statement is an opportunity for them to hear directly from you. Questions that are often lingering at this stage include: Why did you choose these plays to submit? How would you benefit from and contribute to the ND playwright community? Why now? What compels you to write for the theatre?  The application will include details on the specific questions you should address in your letter.
   
• Upload, Copy-and-Paste, or Enter Your Current Playwright/Artistic Bio, Resume, or CV
   
• Upload a Stand-Alone Title Page for each play that includes your full name and contact information in the document. Optional: we suggest you include a brief summary of the play in this document to help panelists recall your work, after having read over 100 scripts.
   
• Upload “Blind Copies” of Two Original Full-Length Works (Plays and/or Libretti-books of musicals) Each submission must be a single work that constitutes a full evening of theatre. For example, a 90-minute play without an intermission is a full-length work.
   
  • Please do not put any identifying information in the script documents. Identifying information includes: your name, contact information, production/development histories, awards, your agent, special thanks, hyperlinks, actors/production team, etc.
  • Please include a character list at the beginning of your script document.
  • Every script page must be numbered.
  • Every script page must include the play’s title.

Supplemental Materials – You may submit music samples to accompany a libretto to showcase the style and tone of the larger work. Please do not submit music in place of the book, and please note past admissions committees have often found libretti less competitive than plays. Once you submit your completed application, you will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the new form. You may submit up to five tracks (mp3 or m4a accepted). Please be prepared to upload all files in one session.

Format Notes: Text can be entered directly into the fields in the application or cut-and-pasted. Formatting such as italics or boldface will drop out. We will only accept your uploaded scripts as PDFs.

Please Do Not Submit:

• Short one-act plays or 10-minute plays, whether collected or alone (Thematically connected short plays will not be accepted as a single full-length play submission.)
• Recommendation letters
• Translations of previously published material
• Screenplays and/or teleplays
• Plays in hard copy or published formats
• Special thanks page, hyperlinks, development opportunities, residencies, production histories, awards, or any information that reveals your identity within your script submissions

Please download and read the Guidelines for Resident Playwrights before applying.