The New Playwrights Program was established in 1976 to give authors a place for professional production of their original scripts, and to bring the works of new writers to the attention of theatregoers in Southeast Michigan. Special attention is given to Michigan playwrights. Scripts are read and evaluated by a team of theatre professionals. An evaluation is sent to the author.

We receive hundreds of submissions every year, so it may be several months before you hear from us. We will contact you when we read your play. Please no follow-up calls or emails. Thank you for your patience.

Script Submission Guidelines

The Detroit Repertory Theatre welcomes new plays for production at our 194-seat, proscenium stage theatre. Our New Playwrights' Program is not a competition, festival, workshop, or staged reading program. We consider plays the authors feel are ready for production, not development.

We are interested in issue-oriented plays (a comedic approach is fine); up to 7 characters; no double casting, and we avoid plays that require children. No one-acts, please. We are not accepting musicals at this time.

Each season we produce, at least, one original work. All plays submitted should:

  • Primarily in English (very minimal amount of a different language is fine - please add an audio or video of proper pronunciation for accuracy)

  • Be bound in a folder

  • Include a cast list

  • Be typewritten in proper manuscript form with pages numbered

  • Include a SASE with postage for return of the manuscript

  • If electronically submitted, the play must be a PDF file.

    • DOC, DOCX, Corel, or Google Docs are fine but PDF is highly preferred.

    • Other formats and/or copy and paste in the email will not be accepted

Playwrights wishing to submit scripts for consideration should address scripts to: 

Detroit Repertory Theatre,
c/o The Literary Manager
13103 Woodrow Wilson, Detroit 48238-3686.

Or email your submission to leah@detroitreptheatre.com

*Please be advised - if you’re emailing from an email client installed on your computer, such as Outlook or iCloud email clients, your actual email will be hidden and we cannot reply back. Please email from the hosting account of your email (e.g., Gmail.com, Hotmail.com, yahoo.com, etc.)

Please do not send more than one script per playwright.
If a submission has already been made and you have not received a response, you must wait to send a second submission.

Choosing
The choice of plays is the single most important decision to be made in any season. All other decisions, all other programs; all the dreams, all the management, all the marketing, all the funding, all the bills, all the outreach, all the hiring; everything, the purpose, the audience, the budget, the visions, are embodied in one thing, the plays we choose. Each choice each year is a risk. The outcome and the income are never guaranteed. The Artistic Director makes the final decision on the choice of plays and, in that sense, the destiny of the theatre is in his/her hands. But the decision is never unilateral.

The Artistic Director reads the submitted scripts. The worthiness, importance, taste, artistry, capability, costs, the talent available, and position in the season’s lineup of each recommended script is discussed and defended by members of the team and the Artistic Director at a special session. Then, the Artistic Director makes the final determination.