At New Dramatists, each resident playwright acts as the artistic director of their own seven-year new play laboratory, utilizing a menu of programming resources to pursue their artistic, process and development goals. Their Lab work is housed in a mindfully cultivated environment, free from financial and critical pressures, with guidance and support from a dedicated staff who encourage expansive, creative, and strategic thinking. Writers map their own journeys with complete creative authority.
New Dramatists pursues a singular mission: To provide playwrights with time, space, and resources in the company of gifted peers 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. Our playwright company consists of early and mid-career writers collectively embodying an artistic, cultural, ethnic, and geographic diversity rarely found in the American theatre.
Who is New Dramatists for?
Any playwright who is writing for the live theatre, who can submit two full-length plays, and for whom the resources of time, space and the company of other playwrights is essential and instrumental to their writing and art-making practice.
What do we offer?
A self-guided seven-year artistic residency, where playwrights are the host artists.
A community of fellow playwrights and a vibrant extended artistic network.
Access to resources supporting creative exploration, project development, and new work processes.
Opportunities to gather as a cohort, including semi-annual All-Writers’ Meetings.
Annual check-ins with artistic staff to discuss your artistic journey and residency goals.
Flexible, playwright-driven artistic development opportunities through The Playwrights’ Laboratory (virtual and in-person), including readings, workshops, and retreats.
Financial compensation for playwrights and collaborators as temporary part-time employees during creative working sessions in the Playwrights’ Lab.
Assistance with casting, directors, and other collaborators.
Access to writing, meeting, and workshop spaces. (Current residency location: Houghton Hall Arts Community, E. 30th Street.)
Ad hoc advocacy for your plays and broader field advocacy for new play and playwright development.
Inclusion of your work in the Michaela O’Harra Manuscript Library.
A personalized profile page on the New Dramatists website.
In the Works Bulletin — a September-to-June emailed newsletter.
ETC — a monthly email of opportunities for playwrights.
Notifications about and nominations for external grants and award opportunities.
As available via funding sources, when developing work through New Dramatists:
Additional financial compensation for childcare and/or substitute teaching expenses for playwrights.
Travel expense reimbursement (in full or in part) for national playwrights.
Additional childcare compensation for collaborators participating in working sessions. (Currently supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Lilly-Ruhl Fund, and Shelby Jiggetts-Tivony.)
As available, partial or full reimbursement of NYC housing expenses for national residents traveling for ND-related projects or events.
All services provided free of charge.
How To Playwright is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
ELIGIBILITY
Any playwright who is a U.S. citizen or who resides in and has the legal right to work in the United States may apply for the 7-year residency at New Dramatists as long as they can meet the submission requirements of 2 full-length plays and a biography or resume.
Residency Requirements
All resident playwrights are required to show documents for I-9 form verification; these documents will be reviewed (as necessary) throughout a writer’s seven-year residency.
Please note New Dramatists is not in the position to be a visa sponsor.
Playwrights outside the tri-state area must have the availability to spend time in New York City and utilize New Dramatists’ services, and the readiness to participate both in-person and virtually in our dynamic artistic community.
Please note New Dramatists' ability to provide reimbursement for travel and/or housing is dependent on the status of dedicated funding. Staff work with each resident to customize residencies that meet individual goals, and we will discuss current available travel and housing resources as part of that process.
ADMISSIONS TOWN HALL
View the information session held on Thursday, July 10, 2025 with New Dramatists staff members Emily Morse, Connie Hall, and John Steber; intern Erica Pajonas; and recent alum Kara Lee Corthron who has served on the admissions committee.
HOW TO SUBMIT
It is in your best interest to gather the documents required to upload to the application—two "blind" scripts and your bio/resume—early in the window, and submit your application in one session. You may be able to pause and return to your application as long as you continue working in the same browser, but this is not our recommendation. Once you complete the final step to “Submit Your Application”, you will no longer have access to your application.
The application window closes automatically at 11:59pm EDT on Monday, August 4, 2025. Sessions will time out at this point and NO ADDITIONAL APPLICATIONS, including those in progress, will be accepted after the window closes. PLEASE DO NOT WAIT TO SUBMIT YOUR MATERIALS UNTIL THE LAST DAY.
This year I had the pleasure of mentoring a few dozen writers in preparation for submission to Concord Theatricals Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival. I thought I would summarize some of the advice I gave to these aspiring writers. I’d also love to hear about any techniques that work for you; feel free to comment below.
Audrey Cefaly is an Alabama-born playwright whose work explores the quiet, aching corners of the human experience. Known for her lyrical language, emotional intimacy, and deep empathy for outsiders, Cefaly’s plays center on characters who are scarred, stubborn, and still reaching for connection. Read: The Poetic Architecture of Audrey Cefaly’s Plays
Her critically acclaimed play Alabasterwas developed through the National New Play Network and received the largest NNPN Rolling World Premiere in history. Other works include The Gulf (Lambda Literary Award winner), Maytag Virgin, The Last Wide Open, and Love is a Blue Tick Hound. Her plays have been produced at Signature Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Florida Repertory Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, The Fountain Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, About Face Theatre, American Blues Theater, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Penobscot Theatre Company, and countless others.
Cefaly’s work is published by Concord Theatricals, TRW Plays, and Applause Books.
Her style is often described as Southern Gothic, but she prefers “Southern Intimist”—a term that better captures her commitment to poetic realism, emotional weather, and the sacredness of small stories. Her characters don’t just survive; they stay, they fight, and sometimes, they get free. Read: Walking with Tennessee Williams
She is a recipient of the David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, an Edgerton New American Play Award, the Lammy Award for LGBTQ Drama and the NNPN Goldman Prize. Audrey is also the creator of a growing collection of handmade stickers and strange love letters to the writing life via her Substack, How to Playwright.
She currently resides in Baltimore with her rescue dog Rosa and her husband Tim (also a rescue).
How To Playwright is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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Apply: New Dramatists 7-Year Residency
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At New Dramatists, each resident playwright acts as the artistic director of their own seven-year new play laboratory, utilizing a menu of programming resources to pursue their artistic, process and development goals. Their Lab work is housed in a mindfully cultivated environment, free from financial and critical pressures, with guidance and support from a dedicated staff who encourage expansive, creative, and strategic thinking. Writers map their own journeys with complete creative authority.
APPLICATION WINDOW OPENS JULY 21, 2025
The button to “Begin Application” will be posted on here at 10am EDT on Monday, July 21, 2025: https://newdramatists.org/admissions
ABOUT
What is New Dramatists?
New Dramatists pursues a singular mission: To provide playwrights with time, space, and resources in the company of gifted peers 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. Our playwright company consists of early and mid-career writers collectively embodying an artistic, cultural, ethnic, and geographic diversity rarely found in the American theatre.
Who is New Dramatists for?
Any playwright who is writing for the live theatre, who can submit two full-length plays, and for whom the resources of time, space and the company of other playwrights is essential and instrumental to their writing and art-making practice.
What do we offer?
A self-guided seven-year artistic residency, where playwrights are the host artists.
A community of fellow playwrights and a vibrant extended artistic network.
Access to resources supporting creative exploration, project development, and new work processes.
Opportunities to gather as a cohort, including semi-annual All-Writers’ Meetings.
Annual check-ins with artistic staff to discuss your artistic journey and residency goals.
Flexible, playwright-driven artistic development opportunities through The Playwrights’ Laboratory (virtual and in-person), including readings, workshops, and retreats.
Financial compensation for playwrights and collaborators as temporary part-time employees during creative working sessions in the Playwrights’ Lab.
Assistance with casting, directors, and other collaborators.
Access to writing, meeting, and workshop spaces. (Current residency location: Houghton Hall Arts Community, E. 30th Street.)
Ad hoc advocacy for your plays and broader field advocacy for new play and playwright development.
Inclusion of your work in the Michaela O’Harra Manuscript Library.
A personalized profile page on the New Dramatists website.
In the Works Bulletin — a September-to-June emailed newsletter.
ETC — a monthly email of opportunities for playwrights.
Notifications about and nominations for external grants and award opportunities.
As available via funding sources, when developing work through New Dramatists:
Additional financial compensation for childcare and/or substitute teaching expenses for playwrights.
Travel expense reimbursement (in full or in part) for national playwrights.
Additional childcare compensation for collaborators participating in working sessions.
(Currently supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Lilly-Ruhl Fund, and Shelby Jiggetts-Tivony.)
As available, partial or full reimbursement of NYC housing expenses for national residents traveling for ND-related projects or events.
All services provided free of charge.
How To Playwright is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
ELIGIBILITY
Any playwright who is a U.S. citizen or who resides in and has the legal right to work in the United States may apply for the 7-year residency at New Dramatists as long as they can meet the submission requirements of 2 full-length plays and a biography or resume.
Residency Requirements
All resident playwrights are required to show documents for I-9 form verification; these documents will be reviewed (as necessary) throughout a writer’s seven-year residency.
Please note New Dramatists is not in the position to be a visa sponsor.
Playwrights outside the tri-state area must have the availability to spend time in New York City and utilize New Dramatists’ services, and the readiness to participate both in-person and virtually in our dynamic artistic community.
Please note New Dramatists' ability to provide reimbursement for travel and/or housing is dependent on the status of dedicated funding. Staff work with each resident to customize residencies that meet individual goals, and we will discuss current available travel and housing resources as part of that process.
ADMISSIONS TOWN HALL
View the information session held on Thursday, July 10, 2025 with New Dramatists staff members Emily Morse, Connie Hall, and John Steber; intern Erica Pajonas; and recent alum Kara Lee Corthron who has served on the admissions committee.
HOW TO SUBMIT
It is in your best interest to gather the documents required to upload to the application—two "blind" scripts and your bio/resume—early in the window, and submit your application in one session. You may be able to pause and return to your application as long as you continue working in the same browser, but this is not our recommendation. Once you complete the final step to “Submit Your Application”, you will no longer have access to your application.
APPLICATION WINDOW OPENS JULY 21, 2025
The button to “Begin Application” will be posted on here at 10am EDT on Monday, July 21, 2025: https://newdramatists.org/admissions
The application window closes automatically at 11:59pm EDT on Monday, August 4, 2025. Sessions will time out at this point and NO ADDITIONAL APPLICATIONS, including those in progress, will be accepted after the window closes. PLEASE DO NOT WAIT TO SUBMIT YOUR MATERIALS UNTIL THE LAST DAY.
Please email our Literary Services Manager Connie Hall admissions@newdramatists.org with any questions.
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PREVIOUS ARTICLES BY AUDREY CEFALY
How to Write the 10-Minute Play
This year I had the pleasure of mentoring a few dozen writers in preparation for submission to Concord Theatricals Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival. I thought I would summarize some of the advice I gave to these aspiring writers. I’d also love to hear about any techniques that work for you; feel free to comment below.
If These Goats Could Talk
How to Layer Grief Without Sentimentality
The First Page is a Lie
Writing From the Middle of the Wreckage
How to Write the 10-Minute Play
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My Top 10 Playwriting Hacks
52 Vocabulary Words for Playwrights
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To Speak or Not to Speak?
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Audrey Cefaly (she/her)
Playwright. Southern Intimist. Tender-hearted troublemaker.
Audrey Cefaly is an Alabama-born playwright whose work explores the quiet, aching corners of the human experience. Known for her lyrical language, emotional intimacy, and deep empathy for outsiders, Cefaly’s plays center on characters who are scarred, stubborn, and still reaching for connection. Read: The Poetic Architecture of Audrey Cefaly’s Plays
Her critically acclaimed play Alabaster was developed through the National New Play Network and received the largest NNPN Rolling World Premiere in history. Other works include The Gulf (Lambda Literary Award winner), Maytag Virgin, The Last Wide Open, and Love is a Blue Tick Hound. Her plays have been produced at Signature Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Florida Repertory Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, The Fountain Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, About Face Theatre, American Blues Theater, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Penobscot Theatre Company, and countless others.
Cefaly’s work is published by Concord Theatricals, TRW Plays, and Applause Books.
Her style is often described as Southern Gothic, but she prefers “Southern Intimist”—a term that better captures her commitment to poetic realism, emotional weather, and the sacredness of small stories. Her characters don’t just survive; they stay, they fight, and sometimes, they get free. Read: Walking with Tennessee Williams
She is a recipient of the David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, an Edgerton New American Play Award, the Lammy Award for LGBTQ Drama and the NNPN Goldman Prize. Audrey is also the creator of a growing collection of handmade stickers and strange love letters to the writing life via her Substack, How to Playwright.
She currently resides in Baltimore with her rescue dog Rosa and her husband Tim (also a rescue).
How To Playwright is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.