Has anyone here had any luck securing funding for purely research purposes? I am working on a play that centers a favorite artist of mine who passed away in 1996 and would love to visit an archive of his personal letters located Los Angeles. He also lived in the area and I would love to be able to visit his old neighborhood and see it for myself. That being said, I do not presently have the funds necessary to cover airfare, housing, and a rental car.

For context, I am an early career playwright; I finished undergrad last year and have been focusing on building my body of work and integrating myself in the indie theater scene in my city. I don’t have many big shiny achievements on my resume but I do have experience with grant writing and was awarded a number of research grants while in school.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? If so, do you have any advice or recommendations?

Thank you so much and best of luck with all of your plays!

Is it working, flowing, interesting enough to want to watch/ or read more? I know there may be some formatting errors but editing it as I catch them.

Several people have commented about approaching a local community theatre to assist in self-producing a play. What costs are usually covered by the author? I presume the facility rental charges and perhaps a stipend for the tech crew and musicians where appropriate? In my experience with smaller venues the actors are not paid, and the director is often on staff with the theatre. In my case I have a few one-act plays in the works which seems to make self-producing even harder? eg no audience is going to show up for a single one-act show. Thoughts are very much appreciated.

Hi playwriting folks, I'm writing with the hopes folks would be up for discussing something I didn't hear much about during my MFA: protecting creative work which hasn't been produced yet.

So... how do y'all go about protecting your plays (and the professional relationships around those plays, etc.)? And what are some red/yellow/green flags to look for when folks ask to read your work?

Hi everyone! I’m an emerging playwright and current college senior expected to graduate in December 2026. I’m in the early stages of developing an original psychological horror/dark comedy musical and am seeking a composer-lyricist interested in a genuine creative partnership. My long-term goal is to develop the show toward an Off-Broadway production, and I’d love to find someone who wants to be involved from the beginning. I’m open to remote collaboration! This is a collaborative opportunity with no upfront budget, so credits, ownership, and potential future royalties would be discussed and agreed upon together. If you’re interested, feel free to DM me with a little about yourself and samples of your work! 🎭🖤

Hi everyone!!
I’m submitting a play proposal to my university theatre society and I need to write a 5-page script sample by October 21.
The problem is that I have the whole concept, visual references, characters, costumes, atmosphere, everything… EXCEPT THE ACTUAL DRAMA.
The concept: AND THE WINNER IS… is a bizarre, 1950s/60s-style talent competition featuring three young women desperate to win, an eccentric old male presenter, ridiculous performances, trophies, and an increasingly absurd atmosphere.
The idea is to explore how something as superficial as wanting to win and be seen can reveal something surprisingly profound.
Think Drop Dead Gorgeous meets absurdist theatre.
BUT WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS??? What’s the conflict? What goes wrong? What makes this a PLAY rather than just a series of weird performances?
I’m not looking for someone to write it for me. I’d genuinely love some strange, unexpected plot ideas or dramatic twists.
Any theatre nerds, playwrights or lovers of absurd comedy willing to help a desperate first-time director? :’)

I have two one-act scripts written, working on notes from some theater colleagues to refine and finalize. My primary hope is that one of my plays is performed at some point in front of a real audience. Along these lines, is it cool to send scripts directly to Drama instructors at the High School or College level? I'm not looking for a penny here, just the rush of seeing one of my plays performed on stage.

Dear r/playwriting folks,

I'm a college senior, and I have a one-night-only staged reading of a play that I have rewritten at a theater on 28th Street. This was my junior year project, but I have since started from page 1, incorporating a bunch of notes while developing it with the original cast! Now we get to present this play (hour-long first act) that we love outside of school, and it's really exciting!!

If anybody here is interested in coming, you can purchase tickets at this link!

Also, if anybody wants a comp, let me know, and I would be happy to put you on the list.

This is a script I wrote for a potential play based on The Argonautica and Euripides’ Medea. My first script please give me some advice and feedback if you want.
Script here

We all know Williams, Miller, Stoppard, Shepard, Beckett, Albee, O'neill, etc and I love them. I do! but sometimes I want to read and experience something that's a bit... less known, something with more intersectionality than just The Canon and I've never really known how to find them. So, this is a request from one stranger to another: please recommend me your Somebody Jones, your Heather Raffos, your Rosaleen McDonaghs and anyone else that doesn't fit the popular mold of white western canon! Thanks!

Edit: holy cow! Thank you so much for the response! I really appreciate all of the recommendations and hope that other people that find this post support and uplift these playwrights, too. :)

I feel like I have seen plays like this before but I can't think of any off the top of my head. Doesn't need to be true madness, just an unsettling evolution of the main character, maybe creates unreliable narrative, or reveals formerly hidden issues of mental health by the end/climax

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Hi everyone,

I'm from Bangladesh, where, to the best of my knowledge, very few people have written plays originally in English. I've written an original short play in English, with an approximate running time of 40 minutes, and I'm now interested in getting it published.

Unfortunately, I have no practical way of producing the play on stage myself.

My family, friends, and others have told me that self-publishing through Amazon or similar platforms is essentially worthless because anyone can do it. According to them, unless a publisher (however small) accepts the play, publication doesn't carry much value or credibility.

I'd therefore like to explore the possibility of getting my play published by a publisher outside Bangladesh, even if it's a small or independent publisher. For example, I'd be happy to approach publishers in India, USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Europe or elsewhere for publication.

However, I have two major limitations:

• I cannot afford to pay for publication. I'm looking for a publisher that publishes plays without charging the author. If the publisher does not pay out anything to the author thats fine as well.
• I don't have a stage production or performance history to demonstrate the play's potential.

I'm not necessarily looking to make money from the play. At this stage, having a legitimate publisher accept and publish it would be valuable in itself.

What would be the most realistic way to approach this? Are there independent publishers that accept unsolicited submissions of original plays, particularly short plays written by authors outside their own countries? Are there any literary journals, theatre publishers, or other platforms worth considering?

I'd especially appreciate advice from playwrights who have successfully published their work internationally, particularly those who started without connections in the publishing or theatre industry.

Thank you!

I am applying to grad school this season, and I am wondering if anyone would be alright sharing their successful personal statements for playwriting MFAs? I'm really just curious about how yall structured them, fitting so much into a page of text. It's the one part of the app I'm still a little lost on. I've written artist statements before, but this seems different... I think I'm applying to Yale, Juilliard, NYU, and Columbia.

I would appreciate any guidance or examples. Thanks!

I keep noticing this setup: the dismissed eccentric who turns out to see the situation more clearly than anyone else (Shotover in Heartbreak House, the Fool in Lear). Is there a name for this archetype, and what are some more modern examples? I'd like to study how writers keep it from feeling like a gimmick.

The most common rejection in theater is one that happens before you ever hit "Send."

It happens quietly at your desk. You find a promising submission listing, feel a flicker of interest... and then talk yourself out of it.

"They probably want something edgier."
"My play runs 100 minutes and they prefer 90."
"They seem to produce bigger names than me."

And just like that, a play that might have been a real contender never leaves your hard drive.

This is the self-rejection problem. Not every playwright falls into it; but after years of doing this, I've seen it sink plenty of opportunities. And it's worth knowing about, if only to make sure it never happens to you.

The most important thing to remember is this: saying no is the theater's job. Not yours.

Sure, there may be times when you decide not to apply because you (or your work) don't meet certain hard rules. If a submission opportunity states: "90 pages maximum," "No musicals," "One submission per playwright," "Must be a resident of Ohio," or something similar--then yes, definitely heed those rules.

But not all submission guidelines are hard rules. Some are wishlists: "We gravitate toward contemporary stories" is not a ban on your historical drama. "We prefer casts of six or fewer" does not mean "We will not read your seven-character play."

Those wishlists might mean your play isn't a perfect fit. But plenty of produced plays sat just outside the stated preferences of the theater that staged them.

Besides, you don't know what holes a theater might have in their upcoming season. Maybe that theater that gravitates toward contemporary stories has filled all of next year's slots with contemporary plays, and needs something different as a change of pace. Or maybe they just hired a new literary manager with different taste.

So the next time you're on the fence about a near-fit opportunity, don't reject yourself. Send it out, and give yourself the opportunity to succeed that you deserve.

I would generally prefer my play to be 1.5h - 2h long. I get that the page count can depend on a number of things and the easiest way to find out how long your play actually is, is to read it out loud and time it, however I still feel like there must be some sort of standard(?). I keep looking back at Chekhov or Ostrovsky, or even the modern playwrights and most of the plays are somewhere between 40-70 pages (A4 format), so i have a fear of writing too much because of that. What's your experience with page counts? Any thoughts or advice appreciated, tho if any of you write in russian language specifically, your input would be especially important to me. Thanks guys!

Working on a character - was wondering if there were any really good, super detailed character dossier templates floating around for me to fill out, and spend a lot of time thinking about everything from their relationships to their favourite foods.

I find doing this to be really helpful, getting into the headspace, but most you can find are pretty narrow or only a few pages. The more the better for me.

Would love it if there's any online, but even one you could buy would be fantastic!

This is a script I wrote for a potential play based on The Argonautica and Euripides’ Medea. My first script please give me some advice and feedback if you want.
Script here