Search
How Do I Get Involved

Playwrights

Admission to the 7-Year Resident Company

 

We offer our resident playwrights an artistic home and self-guided laboratory for seven years, free of charge, in the company of gifted peers. Since its founding in 1949 by Michaela O'Harra, a largely unknown female playwright, New Dramatists has operated on the maxim that ALL artists of outstanding artistic merit deserved to be heard. Our playwright company consists of emerging and mid-career writers collectively embodying the artistic, cultural, ethnic, and geographic diversity of the American theatre. We accept applications online during a submissions window each summer. 

  • The required submission materials are two full-length plays, a resume, and a statement of interest.
  • The seven-person admissions panel changes completely every year.
  • Staff facilitate the process but do not participate in any way in admissions decisions.
  • First round reviews are conducted blindly (playwrights’ names are not disclosed).
  • Over the 9-month circulation period, each panelist reads between 160-180 plays.
  • All decisions are made by consensus.

Click here for more information and to apply.

The Princess Grace Award in Playwriting

Princess Grace Foundation

The Princess Grace Awards is a national program dedicated to identifying and assisting emerging theater, dance, and film artists who are at the outset of their careers or at early stages of professional development. This mission is accomplished in playwriting through a one-year residency program at New Dramatists in New York City. New Dramatists administers the playwriting award on behalf of the Princess Grace Foundation. For guidelines please visit this page.

Edward and Sally Van Lier Playwriting Award

Edward and Sally Van Lier

The Van Lier Fellowship is a two-year residency program established to encourage young, economically disadvantaged playwrights living in New York City develop their talent and become involved in the professional theatre community. Eligible playwrights include U.S. citizens who are Asian-American, African-American, Native American or Latinx. Past Van Lier Fellows have included Robert O’Hara, Carmen Rivera, Steven Sapp, and New Dramatists alumni Lynn Nottage, Diana Son, Eisa Davis and Sung Rno. Fellowship recipients are provided with a fellowship grant, a mentor (New Dramatists resident playwright) and opportunities to workshop their plays with professional actors and directors. For guidelines please visit this page.