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CALL FOR PLAYWRIGHT APPLICATIONS
New Play Fest 2026
Subtext Studio Theatre Company is seeking plays for our second annual new play festival in summer 2026 to serve Chicago-based emerging playwrights by developing and producing plays that reflect our mission: to tell stories by, for and about traditionally marginalized communities and peoples.
This New Play Festival is intended to amplify emerging and early-career Chicago-based playwrights. We do not define early career by age, but rather, journey, prioritizing unproduced and underproduced playwrights. SSTC resonates with bold, heart-centered plays that inspire hope and/or continued conversations, plays with characters who grapple with consequences for their actions, and we are especially interested in BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Latine, and women-centered stories.
About New Play Fest 2026
This is Subtext Studio TC’s second annual New Play Festival, with a goal to provide an abundance of opportunities to a diverse group of emerging playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, and actors. The festival will provide three plays and playwrights with 12-hours of development-focused rehearsals leading up to public readings with moderated post-show conversations in late July and early August 2026. Selected playwrights will receive $200 honorariums for their writing and participation in the festival.
About Subtext Studio Tc
Subtext Studio TC produces new plays that are by, for and about traditionally marginalized communities and peoples in order to express the ideas, voices, and experiences of all people. We specifically focus on the stories and artists of BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and female identifying communities. We endeavor to bring low and no-cost theater experiences to neighborhoods that may have limited access to live theater productions. We are a Latine-led organization and serve the Latine Community, and our focus is multicultural/inclusive theater that impacts multiple communities.
For more information, please browse this website!
Playwright eligibility
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The mission of SSTC is to center the voices of the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities, as well as other traditionally and potentially marginalized communities and peoples. All members of these communities are encouraged to apply.
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Applicants may not have had more than three plays fully produced or scheduled for production by a professional theater at the time of the application. (This does not include student productions, productions without an admission fee, or workshop productions.)
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Applicants must either be based in the Chicago-land area and able to attend rehearsals, or within the region (Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Eastern Iowa) and have access to housing and transportation independent of the New Play Fest.
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Applicants may not have had a play of theirs featured in a past New Play Festival at SSTC.
SCRIPT eligibility
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Plays must be unproduced and not scheduled for production at the time of application.
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Plays must be full length and have an approximate run time or page count of one to two hours or no more than 200 pages.
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Plays featuring 1-4 actors are recommended, but we are open to reading plays with up to 6 actors required. Please include instructions for any possible doubling with your character descriptions.
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Musicals are not accepted.
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Plays previously submitted to a past New Play Festival at SSTC are not eligible for re-submission.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
Please fill out our Playwright Application Form which will collect your contact and eligibility information. You will also be asked to upload the following documents in one single pdf with the file name “First Name Last Name – Play Title – NPF2026.pdf” Example: “Aphra Behn – The Rover – NPF2026.PDF”
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One page with the following information:
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A brief synopsis of your play.
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What inspired you to write this story and what are your storytelling goals?
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Does this play have any development/workshop/reading history, and if so, what?
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What do you hope to learn or work on during a 12-hour workshop process?
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A playwriting resume or bio in any legible format.
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Your full-length play script, including a title page and character descriptions.
Questions may be emailed to New Play Fest 2026 Producer Emma Durbin at NewPlayFest@SubtextStudioTC.org.
Please contact us before applying if any critical action, plot, or character arcs in your play are written in a language other than English. We are a small company, and we want to ensure we have the readers available to respond to your work.
DEADLINE
Friday, January 23, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. CT, or after the first 40 applications.