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Applications for residency will be accepted online during a submissions window June 29-
July 30, 2018. Once the window closes, we will not process any more applications or allow modifications.
New Dramatists staff reviews submissions for completeness in the order they are received, so it is in your best interest to submit well before the deadline.
All U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for residency if they are able to meet the submission requirements, including 2 full-length original plays, a statement of intent, and a biography or resume.
Download and read the 2018-2019 Guidelines for Resident Company and 2018-2019 Application Information documents online BEFORE beginning your application. Each year, in an effort to be responsive to recommendations from the selection panel and evolution in the theatre field, New Dramatists staff reviews and makes changes to our admissions process. Please read all materials carefully.
What is New Dramatists?
New Dramatists pursues a singular mission: To provide playwrights time, space, and resources to create work, realize their artistic potential, and make lasting contributions to the theatre. We offer our playwrights an artistic home and self-guided laboratory for seven years, free of charge, in the company of their most gifted peers. Our playwright company consists of emerging and mid-career writers collectively embodying an artistic, cultural, ethnic, and geographic diversity rarely found in the American theatre.
What do we offer?
▪ Playwright led, and authority over, seven-year residency.
▪ A company of playwrights and a vibrant extended artistic community.
▪ An organization where playwrights are the host artist.
▪ Support for the individual and collective interests of the resident playwrights.
▪ Flexible playwright-driven artistic development opportunities through 1-2 day readings and extended working
sessions as part of The Playwrights’ Laboratory.
▪ Flexible working spaces in our studio, theatre, and classroom.
▪ Flexible writing spaces in classroom and library.
▪ Private writing studio (the Russell Room).
▪ Meeting space in the classroom and library.
▪ Temporary residence rooms in 7th Heaven, which can also be booked as writing space.
▪ Casting, director, and other collaborator assistance.
▪ Dramaturgical, career, and artistic advisement.
▪ National playwright and new play advocacy.
▪ Supervision over what unpublished plays are kept in New Dramatists’ Library.
▪ Grants, Awards, and In the Works Bulletin of Playwright Opportunities.
▪ Retreats.
▪ Web-based resources, including your own profile page on ND’s website.
▪ Complimentary script photocopying.
▪ Complimentary theatre tickets.
▪ A one-year free membership to the Dramatists Guild during the first year of residency.
▪ Wi-Fi.
▪ Bottomless coffee, tea, and water.
▪ Washer and dryer.
▪ Childcare reimbursement for playwrights through the Howard Gilman Foundation and the Lilly-Ruhl Fund.
All these services are provided free of charge.
What Does New Dramatists Ask of its Playwrights?
To the best of your abilities:
▪ Strive to fully utilize New Dramatists’ resources.
▪ Attend the semi-annual All-Writers Meetings.
▪ Serve on the New Dramatists Admissions Selection Committee at least once during your seven-year residency.
▪ Engage in New Dramatists’ community of playwrights: attend fellow New Dramatists writers’ readings, host events,
create content for the podcast series, or spearhead conversations about issues of common concern.
▪ Serve on other governing bodies such as: the Writers Executive Committee or New Dramatists’ Board of Directors.
▪ Ask questions and share resources on New Dramatists’ resident playwright email group.
▪ Credit your New Dramatists Residency in all published professional biographies of yourself, whether in production
programs, press releases, book or play publications, and in any and all other printed matter describing your work and
accomplishments as a writer.
▪ Treat the New Dramatists’ building, facilities, equipment, and staff with all possible care and respect.
Who Can Apply?
▪ Playwrights living in New York City and the surrounding tri-state area.
▪ Playwrights outside the tri-state area who are able to demonstrate the ability to spend time in New York City, the desire to utilize New Dramatists’ services, and the readiness to participate in a dynamic artistic community.
▪ If you are not a citizen of the United States, you must be lawfully admitted to the U.S. with permanent USCIS work authorization.