Young Playwrights Festival
Watch your words come alive
Wharton Center for Performing Arts and MSU Department of Theatre are happy to announce the 30th Annual Young Playwrights Festival. The Young Playwrights Festival is a showcase of six original works, written by high school students, produced by MSU Department of Theatre students and performed at the Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center on the campus of Michigan State University.
Michigan high school students are invited to submit a one-act play to a juried competition. Twelve semifinalists are chosen, and from those 12 the jury will select the six finalists whose plays will be produced. The six finalists will each be assigned a professional theatre mentor to help the playwright revise their play. Each finalist will receive a $200 cash award and a staged production of their play performed at the Pasant Theatre. The other six semifinalists will receive a $100 cash award.
How to Enter
To be eligible, each participant must:
- Be a Michigan high school student in grades 9-12.
- Complete an application form with script. Parent/legal guardian, sponsoring teacher, and student signatures are all required.
- NOTE: Finalists must be willing to work with an assigned professional theatre mentor to review their play; writers who cannot commit to revising their plays will have their eligibility revoked.
Scripts must be in Microsoft Word format:
- All pages must be numbered.
- Separate different characters’ dialogue by one blank line.
- NOTE: No student names should be on the scripts as they are sent to judges anonymously.
Workshops for teachers and students in playwriting are available for interested schools. Please contact Kelly Stuible-Clark for more information at stuible3@whartoncenter.com
Information about our Playwriting Day on MSU's campus is coming soon!
Guidelines
All plays must:
- Be original works.
- Have no more than four characters.
- Require only simple props, costumes, settings, and effects.
- Have a maximum length of 12 pages.
- All required forms and sample script format are available in a Student Information Packet.
- All entries must be electronically submitted to laurie.briseno@whartoncenter.com by Friday, February 6, 2026.
Festival Schedule
Script Entry Deadline
- Friday, February 6, 2026
Finalists Announced
- Friday, February 27, 2026
Free Public Performance
- Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts
- Saturday, May 9, 2026, at 2pm
The best plays have something to say. The best plays reveal something that we may already know, but in a unique way or with a different slant. Plays have a chance to move, repel or unite audiences. A play with a clear purpose, a clear premise, a clear message is always the best for me.
Playwrights have a chance to illuminate whatever excites or angers them. Playwrights can always look for inspiration in their own lives, but they have a responsibility to shape these events into a unique message. Before you put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), know what you want to say.
Rob J. Roznowski
Professor of Theatre/Head of Acting and Directing, Michigan State University
Supported by MSU Federal Credit Union and Wharton Center Inner Circle.