16th Annual Young Playwrights Contest Guidelines and Deadline Announced!

“The land knows you, even when you are lost.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Braiding Sweetgrass”

PlayGround has announced and officially opened the submission window for their 16th annual Young Playwrights Contest, a showcase celebrating the best budding new voices for the stage. Produced in partnership with the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO) as part of a larger art-making and land acknowledgement project at Potrero Stage, the Young Playwrights Contest will feature original short plays inspired by the prompt “The Legacy of the Land We Inhabit”, a prompt also given to PlayGround’s professional writers for the November 2023 round of Monday Night PlayGround. Bay Area High School students are invited to write an original, 10-minute play that brings awareness to and activates the practice of land acknowledgement to be submitted by Monday, April 22, 2024. Four finalists will be selected from plays submitted by high schoolers from any of the 9 Bay Area counties. For more information and the complete guidelines, visit https://playground-sf.org/ypp-guidelines. All applications must be submitted via google form at https://forms.gle/8fGJnvgVMmEfTGXU7.

To learn about the Indigenous land where you live, visit https://native-land.ca/.

For information on PlayGround’s land acknowledgment policy, click here.

To learn about the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, click here.

For information on the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, click here.

In their continuing efforts towards inclusion, accessibility, and fostering new work at all stages of creation, PlayGround is offering a free playwriting master class on Saturday, March 2, 12pm- 2pm PT, in-person at the PlayGround PlaySpace (3286 Adeline St #9, Berkeley, CA 94703) and online via Zoom, as well as a limited number of complimentary in-school (or virtual) playwriting master classes for Bay Area high schools to help students become more familiar with playwriting in the theatrical short form. Led by distinguished PlayGround alumni and staff, these classes are designed to complement existing creative writing and playwriting education within the schools, while opening up the opportunity of the Young Playwrights Project for budding/aspiring dramatists. To register for the March 2 master class, click here. Schools interested in hosting a master class either in person or virtually should contact Jim Kleinmann at jim@playground-sf.org. In-school classes will be offered until mid-April, are first-come first-served, and will directly prepare students for an April 22, 2024 submission deadline. 

Submissions for the 16th annual Young Playwrights Contest are due by 11:59pm on Monday, April 22nd, 2024. Four finalists will be announced on or before May 1. The finalists will each receive a professional staged reading of their play as part of the PlayGround Festival of New Works at Potrero Stage and simulcast on Friday, May 24, 2024. Young Playwrights Project alumni include: Arisa Sky Krueger (Ruth Asawa School of the Arts), Grady Fleming, Clifton Chiang, Josslyn Grover, Julia Satterley and Annika Svahn (Bentley Upper School), Brian Guan (Dublin High School), Linnani Simpson (Ruth Asawa School of the Arts), among others.

In addition to the Contest, through the 16th Annual Howard & Lenore Klein Foundation Young Playwrights Project, PlayGround also offers free tickets for high school students in the Bay Area to attend PlayGround’s public performances, virtually or in-person, including the Festival of New Works at Potrero Stage and Monday Night readings at Freight & Salvage. For more information on tickets and accessibility, schools can contact ypp@playground-sf.org.

For more information, visit https://playground-sf.org/youngplaywrights/ or call (415) 992-6677.