AANHPI reading festival seeking 10-minute plays/excerpts
Theater Mu
Remote
Deadline
Posted
Theater Mu’s New Eyes Festival is staged readings of new works from Asian American playwrights—an artistic incubator for thoughts and ideas looking to be born onto the stage. In the 2024/25 season, Theater Mu launched a new submission model inviting playwrights to submit their work. For the 2025/26 festival, Theater Mu continues the new tradition, with a twist: This year, Theater Mu is inviting playwrights to submit 10-minute plays or script excerpts answering the prompt, “What does freedom mean to you?”
Selected plays will receive a reading during New Eyes, which will take place Jan 23-25, 2026, at the Playwrights’ Center in Saint Paul, MN.
The deadline to submit is Sept 17, 2025, or when they have reached 100 submissions. Playwrights whose work is selected will be paid a stipend of $250.
Requirements
- Playwrights must be 18+ to submit.
- Limit two submissions per playwright. Writers may submit as co-writers, but a co-writer may not submit an additional script as a solo playwright or as part of another team.
- Scripts need not be in their final form, but they should be complete enough to share with an audience.
- They are accepting scripts that have 4-5 actors. It would be helpful to include in your submission any information about doubling, if possible. Please include a stage direction reader in your numbering.
- New Eyes Festival features work from both Minnesota and out-of-state playwrights. They encourage playwrights from Minnesota and/or the Midwest to apply. Writers from all geographic regions are considered, including international writers.
- Theater Mu cannot pay for travel at this time. If your script is selected and you would like to travel to the Twin Cities yourself, you would be more than welcome! Mu staff would be happy to assist you by making recommendations for local accommodations. They would also be happy to set up a Zoom for a playwright to attend rehearsal and performance remotely, if desired.
SUBMISSION CRITERIA
1) New scripts. Priority is given to scripts that have not been widely professionally produced, and/or are early in their life cycle. Maybe the script has never been read out loud; maybe the script has had one or two non-professional productions; maybe there has been a production but not in the Midwest. The script also need not be recently written– perhaps you wrote the script a long time ago but never shared it and are curious about giving it a new life. If you are unsure whether your script follows these guidelines, feel free to reach out.
2) Visionary scripts that align with Theater Mu’s mission. Theater Mu was founded on three core tenets: 1) Asian American stories, 2) exemplary theater, and 3) social justice. If you have a point of view that intersects with this mission, they want to hear from you.
3) 10 minutes in length. Scripts should be roughly 10 minutes when read aloud. Scripts may be standalone, or they may be excerpts from a larger work. If submitting an excerpt, please indicate in your submission where the excerpt should start and stop. The remainder of the script will not be read as part of the submission process, although you may give context in your submission form.