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Deadline: January
24
The Theater
Project’s 23rd Annual
Young Playwrights
Competition
PODCASTS/VIDEOS
featuring 2024 winners available online WHEN: Submission deadline Jan 24, 2025 WHO: NJ high school students
INFO: www.thetheaterproject.org, 908 809-8865
The Theater Project, an award-winning
professional company and incubator for rising talent, is encouraging
New Jersey’s creative young people to enter its 23rd annual Young
Playwrights Competition. The deadline for submissions is January 24.
“We want to make sure that young playwrights know
their creative efforts are valued by showcasing them for the
community,” said Kevin Carver, program coordinator. “Making it an
online event allows them to share their work with friends anywhere
around the country and beyond. Arts education sometimes gets
short-changed as schools struggle to meet so many demands. But when
students lose out on arts experiences, they miss opportunities to
develop critical thinking skills that are needed now more than ever.”
First-, second-, and third-prize winners will receive
cash awards and see their work performed by professional actors at the
Zoom awards ceremony in the spring. Playwrights earning an
honorable mention will receive gift certificates. The Joseph Curka
Award, which the annual winners receive, was named for her late husband
by Marion Curka, one of the earliest supporters of The Theater
Project. The Young Playwrights Competition is made possible in
part by grants from the Lillian Schenck Foundation and Citizens Bank.
Interested students and teachers may find submission
guidelines, videos, and podcasts with last year’s winners at www.TheTheaterProject.org.
The Theater Project works with its “alumni” winners to
find other venues for their work, such as sponsoring them in other
competitions, like the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play
Festival in New York City. Several past winners of the Young
Playwrights Competition have gone on to pursue degrees in theater and
playwriting, and they often return to The Theater Project’s event to
present prizes and share their journeys with the newest honorees. The
judges, all members of The Theater Project’s Adult Playwrights
Workshop, offer half-hour tutorials to any interested contest entrant. 
The honorees at last year’s event were as follows:
- First Prize: August Sullivan, Communications High School, Wall
Township
- Second Prize (a tie): Karma Beech-Wilson, Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy,
Elizabeth, and Merinrose Cheriyan, Bergen County Academies, Hackensack
- Third Prize: Jaylen Mingo, Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy, Elizabeth
- Honorable Mentions:
Everett Bologna, West Morris Mendham High School
Elena Gergis, Bergen County Academies, Hackensack
Jack LaRocca, Communications High School, Wall Township
Allison Lee, East Brunswick High School
Kirsten Marcelin, Bergen County Academies, Hackensack
Katrina Migliore, Communications High School, Wall
Township
Allison Quinn, Communications High School, Wall Township
Mia Ulrich, Governor Livingston High School, Berkeley
Heights
Founded in 1994 and based in Union, The
Theater Project introduces New Jersey audiences to new plays and
supports rising playwrights and theater artists. It develops new
audiences for theater by service to the community, providing programs
for children, and using theater as a forum to address current issues.
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