American Theatre Wing and Design Action’s Springboard to Design offers winning applicants a free New York City trip and a nearly week-long introduction to design each July. Applications open in September and typically close in November.
Educational Theatre Association’s 2026 International Thespian Festival takes place at Indiana University Bloomington June 21-26, with registration opening in March. Students can first participate in fall and winter Thespian Festivals at chapter levels, attending workshops and competing in various categories.
ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence invites teens (aged 13-19) to submit 10-minute plays confronting gun violence every other spring (next cycle in 2027). Selected plays are published in an anthology and produced in an evening of simultaneous nationwide readings. These playwrights are paid for their work and given further mentorship.
English-Speaking Union’s National Shakespeare Competition has students perform Shakespeare monologues and sonnets at school and branch levels every fall. School registration is due in December. Branch winners (announced by March) are invited to national finals in New York City in April, where they participate in workshops and cultural events, and compete at Lincoln Center in front of distinguished judges.
Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s Young Playwrights Festivalaccepts 10- to 15-page script submissions from writers aged 12-18 between Jan. 15 and 29. A cohort of five featured playwrights are selected to spend May 15-17 at the O’Neill developing the short plays with professional directors, dramaturgs, and actors. A number of applicants are also invited as guest playwrights to observe rehearsal, attend workshops, and hear their scripts read aloud.
The National High School Musical Theatre “Jimmy” Awardspresented by the Broadway League, celebrate high school students’ achievement and artistry in vocal, dance, and acting performance. Finalists perform each summer in a Broadway theatre after winning their respective regional programs, including the Shuler Hensley Awards in Atlanta, the Blumey Awards in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Rita Moreno Awards in San Jose, California.
Poetry Out Loud empowers high school students to engage with, memorize, and perform poems at local, state, and national levels. Only participants at schools and organizations registered with their state-level Poetry Out Loud coordinator are eligible for the official competition, held in April, with prizes as high as $20,000.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards offer a number of genres in which high school artists can compete at regional and national levels. Playwrights can submit to the Screenplays & Scripts category. The first regional entry deadline is in December, with the announcement in January. The national announcement is in March, with a ceremony in New York City in June.
The Musical Theatre Songwriting Challengepresented by the National Alliance for Musical Theatre and National Endowment for the Arts, runs an interactive submission process for high school writers and composers. Throughout the fall, students are invited to participate in free online educational events with professionals. Draft 1 submissions (due Feb. 2) receive feedback from professionals; students may revise for the Draft 2 competition round, in which winning songs/songwriters are selected and invited to New York City for Winners Weekend.
True Colors Theatre Company’s Next Narrative Monologue Competition gives high schoolers the opportunity to perform contemporary monologues by Black playwrights such as Cheryl L. West and Idris Goodwin. There are three rounds of competition at participating regions. Regional preliminaries begin in January. The top two winners from each region participate in national finals in May, with an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City, workshops with professionals, a performance at the Apollo Theater, a ticket to a Broadway show, and cash prizes for the top three winners.
The YoungArts National Arts Competition features a number of categories for artists in grades 10 to 12 or aged 15-18 to showcase their skills. Its theatre categories include “spoken only” and musical theatre performance; writers can also apply submit plays to a script category. The next cycle of auditions for National YoungArts Week opens this summer.
The Young Playwrights Festival at the Blank Theatre in Los Angeles accepts short plays written by writers aged 19 or younger between Jan. 5 and March 15, evaluates them with an accomplished panel of playwrights, fully produces 12 selected plays each summer with professional directors and actors, and mentors winning playwrights.
Youth Speaks’s Brave New Voices is the premier festival for youth poetry and spoken word, featuring workshops, showcases, and slam performance competitions. Applications typically close in March.
