O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, $15 Fee, Deadline 9/26/24
Application Instructions
Please complete your application 11:59pm PST on Thursday, September 26, 2024. Early submissions are encouraged. Please review the 2025 NPC Application Guide and eligibility requirements below before starting your application. This form will request the following materials:
Contact and Demographic Information: This includes your name, email address, telephone number, physical address, and optional demographic information. If you have an agent or professional representation, you will be asked to share their name and contact information.
Script PDF: Be prepared to upload a single PDF of your script and developmental goals. Your name, contact information, and agent information (if applicable) must be removed. We are only able to accept PDF files.
Developmental Goals: This should be no more than a page in length. Please use this opportunity to share your larger developmental goals for the play, and what you would hope to accomplish at the Conference if selected. This should be included on the last page of the PDF of your script. We cannot accept two separate documents.
Residency Goals: In addition to their developmental workshop period, all playwrights selected for NPC will be invited to a multi-week summer residency at the O’Neill campus in Waterford, CT. Multiple O’Neill programs run concurrently each summer, and dormitory-style accommodations are provided for all. (Visit our website for more information.) This application form will ask what you hope to gain from being in community with other O’Neill artists and NPC playwrights, and what you hope to contribute as a member of this community. There is a 250-word limit.
Biographical Statement: Please focus on your background as a playwright or theater artist. This can be in the style of a standard bio—the kind you might see in a playbill—or something more extensive. There is a 500-word limit.
Synopsis: Please provide a brief synopsis of your play here. There is a 250-word limit.
Additional Information: If applicable, you will be asked to provide a developmental history of your play that includes any prior readings, staged readings, or workshops. If you are adapting a work that is not in the public domain, you will be asked to upload proof of your permission to adapt this material.
Administrative Fee: The administrative fee for the 2025 National Playwrights Conference is $15. This fee helps offset the costs associated with the organization and administration of NPC: the submission platform, application processing, materials review, and more. If this fee poses a financial barrier for you, please request a fee waiver at this link before you begin your application.
Eligibility Requirements
You must be 18 years of age or older and have the right to work within the United States.
You must be the sole author of the play you are submitting to NPC, and the exclusive owner of all rights to the play. You may submit an original or adapted work, provided that the rights to any material not in the public domain have been granted in writing and a copy of the release is submitted with your script.
Your play must not have had a professional production, or be licensed or optioned to have a professional production, prior to July 31, 2025. If you have any questions about this, please visit our website FAQs for more information. If your question is not answered there, please reach out to the O'Neill literary office at litoffice@theoneill.org.
If your play has previously received—or is scheduled to receive—a developmental workshop, reading, or staged reading prior to July 31, 2025, you must disclose that information in your NPC application.
If your play receives a workshop, reading, staged reading, or is optioned after submitting your application, please inform the literary office via email at litoffice@theoneill.org as soon as possible. Failure to disclose additional development could affect your application’s standing.
If selected for NPC, we understand that you may need to honor outside commitments and/or employment obligations during your residency. However, please be prepared to be fully available during the week that your play is in rehearsal.
Please note that, at time of writing, all staff, artists, and participants of O'Neill programs—including selected NPC playwrights—must receive the latest COVID-19 vaccine before their arrival on campus. If this changes, we will let you know right away. Please visit our website for more information about our COVID-19 policies.
While we welcome all genres and styles of drama—including one-acts and solo shows—NPC does not develop works of musical theater. You may submit those to the National Music Theater Conference.
While we accept work that has been submitted to NPC in previous years, we recommend that you share a new piece with us each season unless it has changed dramatically.
Only complete applications will be accepted. If we discover an error or omission in your application, the O'Neill will contact you through Submittable. You will have 48 hours to correct your materials. If your application is not corrected, it will be withdrawn from consideration and your fee will not be refunded.
Questions?
If we discover an error in your application, the O'Neill will contact you through Submittable. You will have 48 hours to correct your materials. If your application is not corrected, it will be withdrawn from consideration and your fee will not be refunded. Otherwise, please expect to hear from us by April 2025 with an application status update.
If you have any technical questions regarding the submission form, your login information, or payment, please contact Submittable directly through THIS LINK.
If you have any questions regarding your application's content, please visit the NPC Frequently Asked Questions that can be accessed on our website. If the FAQ page does not answer your question please contact the O'Neill literary office at litoffice@theoneill.org.
