Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis 

Playwriting Initiative 2025

The Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis invites emerging playwrights to submit original scripts for our 2025 Playwriting Initiative. At least three winners will be chosen by our panel of playwrights. The winning plays will be presented in a staged reading, with professional actors, in fall 2025 (exact date TBD).

Playwrights will be asked, if possible, to attend cohort meetings, rehearsals, the staged reading, and to participate in a talkback panel—featuring the other winners and the judges—at the conclusion of the event. The winning playwrights will be provided with Festival passes.  

Tennessee Williams St. Louis will accept original not-yet-produced scripts and scripts in progress inspired by an aspect of Tennessee Williams' life or works (including his plays, poetry and short stories). As part of our 10th season anniversary, we encourage playwrights to take into consideration any plays or events produced by Tennessee Williams St. Louis in the past 9 years. 

Tennessee Williams started out in St. Louis writing one-act plays, and one of his biggest breaks was winning a competition sponsored by the Group Theater in New York—the first time he signed his name as “Tennessee” rather than “Tom.” He wrote more than seventy throughout his career—sometimes edgy, often experimental, and always infused with his unsurpassed poetry.  Many of them have been presented at the  Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis, several as world premieres. We invite you to find your inspiration in his artistry and to share it with us.  

Guidelines for submission:

  • Submission accepted from the Greater St. Louis area.

  • The play must be no more than 30 minutes long.

  • The play must not have been professionally produced (although plays that have been workshopped or presented as staged readings are acceptable).

  • The play must be submitted by the author of the play.

  • Only one submission per author.

  • The author must include a statement of no longer than 250 words, a brief biography, and contact information.

  • The play must be in a PDF in Standard Playwriting Format. 

  • Submit your materials by June 16, 2025, to info@twstl.org with the subject line 2025 Playwriting Initiative.

Winners will be notified no later than August 2025 and will be announced at the August 10th Tennessee Williams Tribute Performance at The Grandel. By submitting the play, authors give performance rights to the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis for the year 2025. Authors retain all other rights. 

While it is important (both to our mission and to our audiences and Williams' fans) to uplift and celebrate classic 20th century plays written by Tennessee Williams and his contemporaries, it is essential to our mission that we nurture young and emerging artists, whose work may not otherwise be seen or heard. The Playwriting Initiative encourages a new generation of playwrights and playmakers to bring their work to the table, and invites our audiences to experience and appreciate contemporary narratives and emerging performance styles.