Jewish Playwriting Contest
The Jewish Playwriting Contest seeks to discover, highlight, and nurture contemporary Jewish drama by engaging with artistic and Jewish communities throughout the English-speaking world. The Contest has received and vetted over 1,800 plays by 1,000 writers in 34 states and 10 countries. The JPP has actively developed 55 of those plays, 36 of which have gone on to production in cities across the globe, including New York, Los Angeles, London, and Tel Aviv, playing for more than 100,000 audience members.
STEP 1: COLLECT
The JPP gathers scripts from around the world —about 300 per year —representing a phenomenally rich and diverse cross section of new Jewish drama. So far, we’ve received and vetted
1,800 PLAYS FROM 1000 PLAYWRIGHTS IN 34 STATES AND 10 COUNTRIES.
STEP 2: IDENTIFY
An Artist’s Panel of more than 80 theater professionals reads like mad –each play is read at least 5 different Artist Panelists to answer these questions:
1. Is it a great play?
2. Does it ask a 21st Century Jewish Question?
3. Can it have a future on the world’s best stages?
After four months, a select group of plays are named Finalists
STEP 3: DEVELOP
We bring the Top Plays to as many as 12 Jewish communities around the country, presenting them for lay leaders, clergy, arts-lovers, and regional theater pros.
YOUR JCC, SYNAGOGUE, BOOK CLUB OR THEATER CAN BE A PART OF THE CONTEST!! JUST CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW!!
STEP 4: ADVOCATE
The JPP connects our plays with theatrical decision-makers all over the U.S. and beyond, working to find the best home and the best way to connect our stories to world-wide audiences.
36 OF OUR PLAYS HAVE GONE ON TO PRODUCTION IN ST. LOUIS, LOS ANGELES, CHICAGO, SILICON VALLEY, BERLIN, LONDON, TEL AVIV, AND NEW YORK CITY FOR THOUSANDS OF AUDIENCE MEMBERS
The 12th Jewish Playwriting Contest Finalists
The Jewish conversation today is vastly different than 12 years ago. We are proud to present six playwrights who are telling the stories that matter now: Jewish social media. , Science and faith. A disappearing mural at Yad Vashem.
This is the reason the JPP exists: to bring these stories to you, to create community dialogue around the things that matter, and ultimately, to champion these plays as they move onto the best stages in the world. We’re excited for you to be a part of our journey.
Contest Finalists
Jewish Playwriting Contest SemiFinalists
A Pound of Flesh by Charlotte Cohn & Jason Odell Williams
A modern-day revenge tragedy about fear, redemption, and what it means to be “the chosen ones.”
Chocolate Marmite Cake by Magali Jeger
A Jew and a famous Muslim go on a date. Papparrazzi ensues.
God Is Missing: Bigtan And Teresh Are Dead by Michal Richardson
“Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead” meets the Megillat Esther.
In Her Bones by Jessica Kahkoska
The complicated legacy of crypto-Judaism in the Southwest.
Jewdog by Philip Kenner
Can Jared write a picture book about antisemitism without being antisemitic?
L’Dor v’Dor, Part II: Ruach by Lojo Simon
Part II of a Family Trilogy
Observant by Pamela Weiler Grayson
A violent shooting forces three generations of women to confront their Jewish identities.
Olga’s Strike by Abigain Henkin
Communist ideals and capitalist ambitions collide within a family.
Paper Listens by Kwik Jones
Six women in an Israeli prison band together to fight.
Plague Play by Erin Proctor
A personal, humane adaptation of the Book of Exodus: Chapters 7-11.
Public Servants by Peter Ullian
A group of young politicos test their friendship over pending legislation in Israel.
Screech Owl by Madison Fiedler
Sugar Daddy seeks Nice Jewish Girl for chaste encounters.
Tamar (The Two-Gated City) by Emma Goldman-Sherman
2 rapist culture stories from the Bible, adapted for 3 women.
The Reservoir by Jake Brasch
A lost, queer, neurotic mess of a twenty-something moves home to get sober.
The Tenth Voyage of Capitano Giangurgolo Coccodrillo Fanfarone Matamoros Spavento by Ian Thal
Commedia meets Sinbad meets the blood libel.
The True Chronicles of Ben-Zion Palachi, The Rabbi Pirate by Eric Marlin
The historical phenomena of Jewish pirates.
These & Those by Ruth Geye
Six college students pile into a small basement apartment for Shabbat lunch, but they can’t keep the outside world from showing up uninvited.
Through the Words of the Mother by Jessie Atkin
Lilith, Eve, Miriam, and Esther all stumble out into a nameless void. Stories are told.
Zeph & Violet: A Race Romance by Krystle Adams
A Hasidic Jewish man who breaks into a Black woman’s home, during a blizzard, to confess his love for her years after the Crown Heights Riots.
Honorable Mention Plays
A Cardiac Jew by Jim Shankman
A Crack in the Sidewalk by Cynthia Spierer
Beneath the Orange Tree by Zachary Robinson
The Hairy Man by Bryan Halperin
The Sacred Society by Ethan Slater
Watchdog by Kayla Feldman
Yellow Wallpaper 2.0 2020 by Jennifer Maisel