YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
Young Playwrights Festival
Every year Syracuse Stage invites Central New York high school students to write original ten-minute plays and other performance pieces for entry into our annual Young Playwrights Festival contest. Our panel of theatre and literary professionals evaluates each student's play. Semifinalists are invited to attend a writing workshop with Syracuse Stage where their plays will be read and critiqued. Finalists will see their plays performed as staged readings by Syracuse University Drama Students.
January 1: Play acceptance begins
February 10: Submissions due
March 28: Writing workshop
April 28: Young Playwrights Festival
2025 WINNERS
Front Row (L to R): Lucas Chiorini, Judah Eglash, Zinira Izmir, Astro Johnson. Back Row (L to R): Udochukwu Okereke, Jaden Sistrunk, Zoe Seppi, Evan Wagner-Flynn, Grey Milligan. Photo: Candice Bermudez.
2026 YPF QUOTABLE PLAYWRIGHT
Lynn Nottage
LYNN NOTTAGE
(born November 2, 1964) is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who are black. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for her play Ruined, and in 2017 for her play Sweat. She was the first (and remains the only) woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama two times.
Leanne Best, Martha Plimpton and Clare Perkins in Sweat at Donmar Warehouse, London. Photograph: Johan Persson.
