Resident Playwrights Program

Applications for the 2026-27 Resident Playwrights will open Summer 2025

Playwrights Foundation’s Resident Playwrights Program (RPP) offers up and coming Bay Area playwrights an artistic home to personally grow and advance their career within a nurturing community for a multi-year residency. RPP holistically supports a cohort of 4-5 Bay Area resident playwrights over a 2 year period offering financial investment, community with other playwrights, tailored career support from PF staff, retreats, internal and public workshops as well as local and national networking opportunities. Visit our RPP program website page for more details about the program.

Eligibility Information

Playwrights applying to this program must fulfill the following eligibility requirements (We will be checking eligibility before applications are confirmed):

• • Live in the San Francisco Bay Area in one of the following 9 counties: San Francisco, Alameda, Santa Clara, Marin, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Solano, Napa, or Sonoma
  • Written at least one full-length play. (Should be a minimum of 60 pages. If you have written a full length play less than 60 pages, please check in with Literary staff before applying).
  • Have momentum in their playwriting career as evidenced by at least one professional production of a full-length play OR at least three professional development opportunities for full-length plays. Must have been completed prior to application date.*
  • If a current student, must have an expected graduation date of December 2023 as the cohort will begin in January 2024. Please indicate this within your application and on your resume/bio.
  • Writing primarily in English, although we do support multilingual plays
  • Have valid work authorization (Social Security Card, Green Card, or Employment Authorization Document)
  • Not in the current BAPF cohort or an RPI alum

Applicants should also have a genuine interest in being a part of a cohort who enrich each other’s creative lives as they create impactful new work, take agency over their creative life, and deepen their connections within the two year period and beyond.

*”Professional” is defined as a paid opportunity at a regional theater or new play development organization (university productions are not defined as professional). A “production” is defined as at least 6 public performances with set, lights, and costumes with no script in hand. Examples of development opportunities of full length scripts include:  public or internal staged readings or workshops, playwriting groups with a selection process, commissions, and other similar opportunities. If you have questions about whether you are eligible, please send your resume to literary@playwrightsfoundation.org in advance of your application.

Timeline

• • The 2024-2025 residency will be from January 2024 through December 2025. Playwrights must be in residence in the Bay Area by January 2024. 
  • Important 2024 dates: 
    • January will host an orientation meeting per mutual schedules 
    • A four day, three night in person artistic retreat will be scheduled in February (Dates TBD, will update during application process)
    • Monthly Cohort Meetings to be scheduled per mutual availability with group 
    • A one night in person event for the RPP cohort will be scheduled during the second week of BAPF between April 18-21

We hosted a Program Overview & Application Help Session on Monday, August 21st, 2023 at 11am-12 pm PT with a live Q&A with PF Staff. Click here to view the video recording. 

Our Evaluation Process

We have an open application process for this program where ultimately, 4-5 Bay Area writers will be chosen for the residency as a member of our next cohort. A panel of 8-10 Bay Area alumni and theatre professionals with PF Staff will review applicants over a 3-4 month period. We will be looking holistically at the writer’s full length play, work samples, resume, and responses to narrative questions and review applications with names of playwright attached (i.e.: We do not do blind submissions). All applicants will receive a notification letter after the review period is over in December 2023.

We look forward to getting to know you and your work. Any additional questions not addressed in the guidelines can be sent to literary@playwrightsfoundation.org. Please NOTE, the literary office is only part time and will not be responding to questions after 2 pm PT on Friday, Sept 1. 

Bay Area Playwrights Festival

Applications for the 47th Bay Area Playwrights Festival Program will open in Fall 2024.

We do not accept scripts via email in the interim.

The Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) provides vital artistic resources to participating writers over a 12-month period including: time and space with a professional and talented creative team, support for individualized playwright-centered goals, and engagement with a community of playwrights, theatre professionals, and audiences. The ultimate goal of this program is to support the writers’ artistic growth, career advancement, and their journey to production on stages in the Bay Area and across the U.S.

Applications for the 47th Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) are open to any playwrights living in United States and writing primarily in English (multilingual plays are accepted) who consider themselves either an early or mid-career playwright  (of any age).

Playwrights chosen for the festival will be paired with an artistic team composed of a professional dramaturg, director, and actors, and other artists as needed. The lead artistic team members will go on a 3-day retreat, receive at least 23 hours of rehearsal, and two staged readings over two weeks at the festival. Local and national producers, theater artists and the general public are invited to the festival to see the staged readings and meet the playwrights.

We want to emphasize that the public staged readings are not intended as a showcase for a finished play. We equally value the creative work in the room and the public readings as opportunities to advance each individual playwright’s developmental goals. Our organization also values connecting playwrights to creative partners and producers.

Compensation

Minimum $1,200 Stipend. If in person, travel and housing is guaranteed for non-local playwrights. 

Eligibility Guidelines

We welcome applications from writers of all ages, backgrounds, identities, national writers, and local Bay Area writers. Special attention is given to Bay Area writers, early career writers of any age, BIPOC and other historically marginalized writers.

Eligibility considerations:

• Applications must be full-length, unproduced and original plays in PDF form.
• We do accept adaptations, but not translations.
• Plays that have previously received a workshop or university production are considered unproduced.
• Only one application is allowed per playwright, per cycle. 
• If you were selected for the previous Bay Area Playwrights Festival we ask you observe a one-year hiatus from applying for the festival.
• Can I apply more than once with the same play? Playwrights can apply with a new draft of a play they previously applied with for one additional application cycle, especially if it’s had a significant revision. Please do not apply a third time with the same play. 
• We also do not accept musicals at this time.

We follow Dramatists Guild guidelines for career status:

• ‘Early-career’ refers to playwrights who are relatively early in their careers – students, recent playwriting program graduates (up to 3 years), and older dramatists who have had 0-3 professional (paid) productions of their work. You can be early-career at any age and we celebrate that.
• ‘Mid-career’ as playwrights who have received more than 3 professional productions, and who are generally working professional playwrights, but not yet fully established with multiple regional LORT productions. We are looking for a mix of career experiences to create a cohort, so all writers are welcome.
• ‘Unproduced scripts’ we follow the Dramatists Guild’s definition as “a script that has not been “professionally” produced. Readings, staged readings, AEA workshops, development productions, amateur productions, concert versions, etc. are not professional productions.
• ‘Full-length’— We ask that your scripts are a minimum of 60 pages in length, but if it is shorter and you know that it does take more than an hour of stage time, simply email our literary team to ask if it is eligible. We are not a 10-Minute play nor One-Act play contest, but looking for more substantial scripts of interest for theaters to produce in their seasons.

Our Evaluation Process

We have an open application process for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, where ultimately, five plays will be chosen for development.

We strive to create a process which is equitable and fair to all who apply. Every script will be read fully twice by readers on our National Committee of theatre professionals who are advocates and allies of new work. Before any decisions are made regarding our Semi-Finalists round, multiple staff members will evaluate each writer’s script, individual development goals and resumes. In our Semi-Finalist and Finalist round, a community of 20 Bay Area theatre artists of multiple disciplines will gather to discuss plays that have advanced. For more on our process, read Literary Manager Heather Helinsky’s articles from 2020 and 2021, and Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin’s (BAPF44 Alum & BAPF45 Play Selection Advisor) article from 2022.

We review our application and evaluation process every year and are in contact with the Dramatists Guild and LMDA regarding best practices for our organization, to help guide updates.

Checklist Before Applying:

• A full-length Script in PDF form, titled LastNameFirstName_PlayTitle_DraftDate
• Resume in PDF form, titled LastNameFirstName_Resume (Please keep resume to 1-2 pages, not an extensive CV please)
• A list of three areas of your play you want to work on. This is your Goals Statement. (500 words max)
• A 1-2 sentence synopsis of your play
• You are a playwright living in the United States writing primarily in English (Multilingual plays accepted).
• You have read our website and acknowledge the defined terms.
• Application fees will be prompted at the end, and are Sliding Scale. If you would like to request a Fee Waiver, see below in the FAQ section. Everyone who applies must fill out the payment form, even if the fee is waived.

Producing Partnerships

Our Producing Partnerships Initiative allows us to connect the work of our alumni playwrights to producing theaters here in the Bay Area, with an eye towards producing a world premiere or an important second or third production. Producing Partnerships will be extended by invitation only, but we encourage our alumni to share their new work directly with EAD Jessica Bird Beza to begin a conversation about a potential Producing Partnership.