SCRIPT SUBMISSIONS DUE NOVEMBER 11
FOR THE 2025 SHE DFW FESTIVAL!
Building on the success of our Summer Theater Festivals in New York City, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, SheDFW will bring our mission and vision to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Texas artists have always made up a large portion of our nationwide script submissions, so now, we’re bringing the Festival to you! We can’t wait to see what women, trans, & non-binary voices of Texas bring to the stage for our first annual SheDFW Theater Festival, September 10-15, 2024.
About the SheDFW Theater Festival
what’s the festival timeline?
Script submissions are now open, due November 11 at 11:59pm PT.
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
Help Launch the SheDFW Festival
We can’t do this without your help. Donate to SheDFW and become one of our inaugural supporters!
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 [email protected].
Keep in touch
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The SheDFW Summer Theater Festival is funded in part by a generous grant from The National Endowment for the Arts.
Ready to apply?
