City Theatre Seeks 10 Minute Plays for the Susan J Westfall National Short Playwriting Contest! 

The nationally recognized playwriting contest opens for submissions on June 1, 2024.

City Theatre is looking for the best short plays from all over for our upcoming 2024-25 season that furthers our mission to identify, acknowledge, and award excellence in dramatic writing. Having produced hundreds of plays, we want scripts that are lively and timely, hilarious, provocative, poignant, and surprising. We look for plays that span style and genre. We will consider bilingual scripts and ten-minute musicals. We have no restriction on the age range of the characters. In other words, we are seeking compelling plays that rise above the ordinary.

City Theatre seeks compelling plays that rise above the ordinary. Playwrights from across the country are invited to submit lively, timely, hilarious, provocative, poignant, and surprising scripts. We look for plays that span style and genre. We will consider bilingual scripts and ten-minute musicals.
 

Contest finalist scripts are contenders for production at various productions and programs City Theatre presents year-round. To submit a play, please visit citytheatre.com on June 1st.  We highly encourage the submission of plays from writers who self-identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), women, and LBGTQ+. We invite writers at all career levels to submit. Contest finalist scripts are contenders for production at various productions and programs City Theatre presents year-round. The contest opens on June 1st and will remain open until the maximum number of submissions are received. Each playwright may only submit one play for consideration. Playwrights are encouraged to submit as soon as possible when the contest opens.

These shorts will not only be considered for the contest, but for City Theatre’s year-round short play programming:

SUMMER SHORTS - City Theatre’s signature program of eight short plays produced annually in June, was established in 1996.  

SHORT CUTS – City Theatre’s Tour for Young Audiences features a diverse cast performing four age- and theme-appropriate short plays, presented for free to students of Miami-Dade County Public Schools.  

CITY READS, presented year-round in partnership with local, independent bookstore Books & Books, invites the community to enjoy a free reading of short plays related to the theme and participate in a conversation about the works and issues presented.   

Playwrights can submit only one script - send us your best!

Each script must be no more than ten pages long. We start counting when the actual play begins.

City Theatre is opening a limited submission call for NPX playwrights only. This submission call will be limited to the first 200 scripts. We will only accept one play per playwright, and if you tag your play for this submission, you MAY NOT submit to City Theatre's general submissions via our website. Playwrights may only submit ONE play to ONE submission call. Those who submit twice will have their plays deemed ineligible (please don't make us do that!)

Previously submitted plays, longer one-acts or full-length plays or musicals won’t be accepted or returned.

City Theatre will consider previously produced works with a production history included with submission.

The volume of scripts submitted prevents us from providing feedback or criticism.

NOTE: City Theatre will only contact playwrights with scripts the company considers for the Susan J Westfall Short Playwriting Contest, or we are interested in producing in its various programming. ONLY those playwrights will be contacted by email or phone call, no later than June 1, 2025.

Thank you so much for submitting your SHORTS to City Theatre. We appreciate your interest in our theatre and wish you happy submitting!

Please reach out if you have questions not covered by the information above. info@citytheatre.com

Thank you!