Play Submissions

Thank you for your interest in sharing your work with Playwrights Horizons. Please note that our play submissions policies have changed.

For many years, we have maintained an open submissions policy with very few parameters. During this year of self-reflection, however, we’ve come to understand that this program does not serve the playwriting community as fully as it’s intended to. Rather than open our theater’s doors to a diverse range of writers, the program, in practice, has mostly served to provide access only to a small pool. 

We have rearticulated our artistic guidelines, and restructured the program, in order to extend our reach more intentionally and equitably, as part of our anti-racist efforts as a theater.  

For more insight into our new approach, check out this essay by Literary Director Lizzie Stern and this interview with Playwrights’ recent Literary Fellows in Almanac, our new magazine. 

Thank you for considering these guidelines, and for joining us in this new process. 

Artistic Guidelines 

• We are in pursuit of storytelling that is rich in self-expression and theatrical imagination. 
• We strive to explore the multiplicity and complexity of American culture and experience. 
• It is our aim to support artists who have a demonstrated commitment to the craft, art, and profession of playwriting.
• We consider plays and musicals with a cast of at least three characters (which can be played by fewer actors). 
• We are unable to consider plays and musicals which require more than fifteen actors.
• We do not accept autobiographical solo shows.  
• We do not accept one-act plays, whether on their own or thematically paired. 
• We do not accept plays that are straightforward adaptations of existing texts or straightforward dramatizations of historical events. If you are unsure if your play falls into one of those categories, ask yourself if your primary objective is to tell someone else’s story, or to tell your own original story? (We don’t consider the musicalization of a source material to be straightforward adaptation, as composing music is inherently generative.) 
• We are happy to read plays and musicals at any stage of development, but don’t have the human resources to consider new drafts of previously submitted work.  

Submission Form

What you can expect when you submit: Because of the volume of submissions we receive, we can only respond to work that we feel is in line with our theater’s specific mission and artistic values. We appreciate your patience as we read every submission, and give each one ample attention. If we’d like to request a full copy of your play, you will hear from us within four months. If you don’t hear from us within four months, please know that we considered your work with great care.

• Why do you want Playwrights Horizons, in particular, to engage with your work? What is it about our theater that would make it a good home for your play? (max. 100 words)
• Rather than ask for an “artist’s statement,” we offer a prompt for a short creative free-write. Choose one and just go for it! (max. 200 words) 
  • If you could open a culinary establishment of any kind, anywhere in the world, what would it be and why? 
  • Walk us through your moon landing
  • Why haven’t you written the play you’ve always wanted to write? 
  • Defend something you don’t believe in  
  • Provide instructions for making scrambled eggs 
  • Who are your musical theater heroes, and why?
• Please upload a bio or resume (in pdf)
• Writing sample:
  • Playwrights, please upload ten consecutive pages, in PDF, from the full play you’d like to submit. Title pages, cast breakdowns, and author’s notes don’t count towards this page count. 
  • Composers and librettists, please upload up to three musical tracks (rough demos welcome!) and accompanying lyrics, in PDF. Also please upload surrounding dialogue for ONE of those tracks (up to ten pages, in PDF).
• A reminder that we don’t consider: new drafts of previously submitted work, autobiographical solo shows, one-acts, and straightforward adaptations or dramatizations of historical events.