We partner with great writers who not only have a great idea for a play, but have a heartfelt intention to write a Jewish play. To us, this means that during the development process, the writer is committed to making decisions about the progress of the play (or musical) that enhance and deepen the Jewish content, spirit, ideas and values in the work.

This is where the JPP development process differs from other NPD venues. We will ask you to “make your play more Jewish”. We will back this up with the expertise, support and resources to investigate how that works in your play.

This does NOT mean asking writers to add more prayer, or Jewish melodies, or latkes. It does not mean privileging Jewish characters or settings. It does not mean more Jewish mothers or bar mitzvah jokes.

It means seeking intersectionality with all our brothers, sisters and siblings. It means embracing change and building diversity. It means stirring revolution and sparking resistance. It means bringing the best of Jewish history – the radical intellectual tradition that is core to the Jewish spirit – into the 21st Century.

It means digging deep and asking how identifying as or being identified as Jewish affects our sense of self, of community, and of thinking about our place in the world.

We believe great Jewish stories/plays lead to great questions and conversations about our multiple Jewish identities, and that rigorous conversation and questions lead to great plays. It is important to the JPP to identify writers during the selection process who share these intentions.

The JPP seeks plays that find the intersection between Jewish identity and global self. We want to look at the places where Jewish ideas, traditions, stories, myths, culture (and yes, religion) impact, inform, and hopefully improve our lives.

While we value history, we will always lean toward plays that tackle vibrant strands of today’s world: social justice, economic justice, diversity, strong women in Jewish life, LGBTQ inclusion, new perspectives on Israel, environmentalism, and interfaith relations in addition to deep conversations about our complex and multifaceted identities.

We discourage the beloved category of “ethnically stereotypical comedy” (No ‘Yiddishemammeh” plays, no “My Afternoon With Bubbe”, no “Jewlicious”).

The JPP also discourages plays whose main goal is memorializing or educating about the Holocaust; we feel that we already have a strong cannon of plays, literature, and film that serve those functions and that superior new works would find a strong development path without our help.

We would also caution writers to make sure that you do not rely on the emotion stirred by Holocaust remembrance as a substitute for dramatic development or tension, as well as discourage writing that reduces Jewish identity to a Holocaust legacy.

As we enter our second decade, so much has changed in the Jewish conversation. One of the things we love to do at the JPP is encourage writers to tackle some big, new, potentially-controversial ideas. Because that’s when it gets fun!

Here’s some things that are on our minds right now.

What does Jewish look like?

If you look at public culture – particularly theater – over the past century, you’d have to assume that American Jews were entirely white, Ashkenazi, of Northern or Eastern European background. That was never really true, and it’s less true now than ever.

Today, as many as 17% identify as Jews of Color, 10% (and growing) are Orthodox, and Sephardi, Mizrahi and Israeli communities have taken their own place in the dialogue. Combine this with questions of gender and sexuality and intermarriage and religiosity – and the Jewish community is massively intersectional and diverse.

Now, we need our plays to catch up.

(See Molly Olis Krost’s WHAT WE FOUND)

Jews, Race and Racial Justice

Jewish commitment to racial justice is real, from the Freedom Riders to Rabbi Heschel to JFREJ and Bend the Arc. But it’s been a long time since American Jews were an oppressed minority unequivocally allied with other racial and ethnic groups striving for full enfranchisement in the civic body.

How is today’s American Jewish community – a powerful interest group with access and agency – meeting this radical moment of racial reckoning?

(See EllaRose Chary’s THE WRONG QUESTION or Dana Leslie Goldstein’s GO DOWN, MOSES).

Anti-Semitism in Today’s World

We’re not “the sky is falling” kinda folk, but we recognize that anti-Semitism is back in a big way. That’s not news. What is new is the bizarre kinships springing up these days.

• Anti-Semitism on the political Right: When traditional GOPers are hanging out with the far right and they are both making rules about antisemitism, things are pretty scrambled. What are the stories that need to be told?
• Anti-Semitism on the political Left: There have been challenges amongst progressive allies and Jewish communities for some time, and post October 7th, the ground has shifted in some profound ways. How do we find common ground?

If you have submitted your play to the JPP before, it is still eligible (with the exception of previous Contest winners). However, before you resubmit, consider whether one of the following is true: a) you have made significant rewrites to the play; b) your play has received additional development by an outside theater company (i.e. something outside a table read at your house); or c) you feel that something in the current zeitgeist has shifted the context around your play and made it newly relevant. We believe that the right play may simply need to find the right play or the right time or the right reader, but we ask you to be aware of our limited resources.