North Texas’ home for women, trans, & nonbinary theater artists.

Each year, the SheDFW Summer Theater Festival produces 4-5 original, full-length plays and musicals by women, trans, & non-binary writers in Dallas-Fort Worth.

get ready – she dfw is back this summer!

The 2026 SheDFW Summer Theater Festival will run September 7-13 at Stage West Theater. Tickets will be on sale in July!

NOW CASTING FOR THE FESTIVAL SHOWS! APPLY BY JUNE 10

Read the casting notice, then submit your materials via the below form. Your materials will be shared with the creative team of each show, who will reach out if they’d like to bring you in for a callback.

*NOTE: The SheDFW teams were at the Citywide General Auditions hosted by Echo Theatre on May 23. If you auditioned that day, we already have your materials and you do not need to apply again.

Click Here to read the casting notice

Click Here FOR THE APPLICATION

THE 2026 SHE DFW SHOWS

battle crown: the legend of princess pink
a new musical

Book, music, & lyrics by Amanda Dills

When three teenage gamers discover a mysterious 1980s console, they unlock an unfinished 8-bit adventure where the Princess is finally the playable character. Inside the game, castles glitch, wizards rap, and Ribits..well… “ribit.” Battle Crown: The Legend of Princess Pink blends retro video game nostalgia, a synth-pop score, and a coming-of-age story about friendship, failure, and unfinished quests. In this feminist musical adventure, the biggest power-up just might be the courage to act before you know you can win.

hamill, tx

By Analisa Salinas

Freshly graduated from a big university, Aurora returns to her small hometown for the funeral of two family friends. While navigating her next chapter and the new grief hanging over her family, she starts to find solace where she shouldn’t. As her visit turns into a quickly spiraling cycle of tension and recklessness, it gets harder and harder for her to admit why she really came back home.

the other side of the shore

By Tilda Grace

The Other Side of the Shore is a reimagining of a classic Celtic folktale. What happens when three children become the byproduct of a love that began as free-spirited infatuation but transformed into possessive imprisonment? Following the presumed death of their mother, Orlaith is left to care for her younger twin siblings: Fiadh, a sickly girl with a vivid imagination, and Ruairi, a hot-headed boy often at odds with their brash and abusive father, Cian. In the face of grief, expectation, and raging ocean storms, the siblings must decipher the mysterious origins of their family and discover their own roots along the way.

About the SheDFW Theater Festival

what’s the festival timeline?

Script submissions are now closed as of November 11. Submissions for the 2026 Festival will open in September 2025. Read on to learn more about the Festival process!

what is a theater festival?

The typical theater festival is an opportunity for playwrights to self-produce their work in full onstage, for a paying audience. Festivals have multiple shows which all share resources (like the theater itself, front-of-house staff and supplies, and technical equipment), making the process far less expensive for everyone than producing your show in full on your own. If you’ve done readings already and feel like you’re ready to take the next step of seeing your piece fully staged, a festival is probably the right fit for you!

how is sheDFW different?

We pride ourselves on providing more for less. As a non-profit, we’re able to charge no participation fee, and you get the full SheDFW staff on your team to help produce your show with you!

We take care of most of the logistics, so you can focus on the creative parts of producing your show.

what do you get as a part of the festival?

SheDFW provides to its selected playwrights:

Theater rental for tech/performances and all of the technical equipment and insurance that goes along with it
A director
Free rehearsal space
Some basic shared set pieces
A $200 stipend for the writer + 12% of your show’s ticket sales
$250 to use toward costumes and props
A sound designer and lighting designer who will design all the shows in the Festival
A Production Manager for your time in the theater who will run tech & performances
A marketing & advertising strategy for the festival as a whole
Production photography & videography
The Festival producing team to help guide you through the process
Front of house and box office staff; we manage the ticketing system
A lifelong community of artists to support you going forward!

Additionally, of the 3-4 shows we select to be a part of the Festival, we plan to select one musical. That musical will be sponsored by MusicalWriters.com, enabling us to provide:

A music director and performance pianist, potentially including a band depending on the musical style of the show accepted
A choreographer, if needed
The support of the team behind MusicalWriters.com!

what do you need to provide as a part of the festival?

You’re the lead producer on your own show, so you pull together your team and everything that the festival doesn’t provide. This includes:

Any rehearsal space you may need outside of what we provide
Any set, props, or costume pieces outside of what we provide
You make your own casting decisions and hire your actors (though we’ll help with this by setting up a group audition day)
“Elbow grease” marketing – while we advertise the festival as a whole, you should promote your individual show and make sure your networks know about it
A stage manager for your rehearsal process, if you feel you need one

who can apply?

Anyone in the U.S. can apply, but preference will be given to Texas-based artists. Your show must be written by someone of a marginalized gender (including cis women, trans, and non-binary people), or a writing team that’s at least 50% people of marginalized genders.

What kind of shows we accept:

Full-lengths only (running time between 1 and 2 hours)
Plays, musicals, or adaptations
The writing team must be at least 50% marginalized genders (cis women, trans men and women, and non-binary people)
You must own all the rights to the material within your script

What kind of shows we do not accept:

Short plays or short musicals (less than one hour)
Pieces that are adapted from works that are not public domain or that you can’t prove you have the rights to produce

support the festival

We can’t do this without your help. Donate to SheDFW and become a vital supporter of gender equity in the arts!

Get Involved

Want to be involved in the inaugural SheDFW Theater Festival? We’d love to hear from you! We hope to make this a truly community event, so encourage DFW-based artists, arts adminstrators, and organizations to reach out by signing up below, or emailing DFW@shenycarts.org.

Sign Up