2025 High School Playwriting Fellowship
Ends on
Seven Fellows will be selected!
Please read the information below and create an account with Submittable to submit your application.
ELIGIBILITY
The Fellowship is open to any high school student who is currently enrolled in and attending public high school in one of the five boroughs of New York City at the time of entry.
DEADLINE
The entry deadline is November 6, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST. The entry date is final; no further extensions will be provided. The system will automatically prevent entry submission after the deadline.
Program Schedule
Fellows must attend:
10 or more of the 12 mentorship workshops on:
- January 16, 30
- February 6, 13, 27
- March 1, 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, 22
The final presentation on March 31, 2025.
Workshops will take place in Manhattan from 4:00pm-6:00pm on Thursdays and 11:30am-1:30pm on Saturdays.
3 or more for the 4 theatrical presentations on:
- January 18, 25
- February 1, 15
WHAT TO SUBMIT
Each entrant must submit:
- An artistic statement (500 words or less)
- A creative writing sample (1-3 pages long)
- Three different story ideas (each should be 3-5 sentences long)
Each entrant may enter only one submission. You may edit your entry after submitting, up until the deadline.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
This is a skill-based fellowship award process. All eligible submissions will be reviewed by a panel of readers drawn from the New York City theatre community and evaluated by criteria defined in the rubric section.
AWARDS
The selection committee may choose as many as seven winning entrants as follows: one from each of the five New York City boroughs, one from a District 75 school, and one from a District 79 school, subject to sufficient submissions in each category.
Each Fellow will receive:
- Mentoring from theatre professionals
- A $500 honorarium
- A professional staged reading or an online presentation of the Fellow’s play
- Publication of the Fellow’s play
- A certificate of recognition
- Dinner and tickets to a Broadway show
WARRANTS AND REPRESENTATIONS
By entering, entrant represents and warrants that the submission:
- Is original and entrant’s sole creation
- Does not infringe upon any person’s intellectual property rights, rights of publicity or privacy, or other rights or defame any person
- Has not previously been entered into any competition or fellowship, publicly performed, or won any award
- Does not include any racial slurs
SUPPORT
If you have any questions, please email HSPF@lortel.org.
SPECIAL THANKS
The Lucille Lortel Theatre would like to thank the NYC Department of Education Theater Program.
Technical Questions?
Check out the Submitter Resource Center or contact Submittable Customer Support.