SheNYC is the City’s premier festival showcasing new, original works by women, trans, & non-binary writers & composers.
Applications for the 2027 SheNYC Festival are now open: due November 5th, 2026 at 11:59pm!
SheNYC is the City’s premier festival showcasing new, original works by women, trans, & non-binary writers & composers.
Applications for the 2027 SheNYC Festival are now open: due November 5th, 2026 at 11:59pm!
2027 SCRIPT SUBMISSIONS
Submissions for our 2027 Festivals are now open through November 5, 2026 at 11:59pm PST.
Each year, the SheNYC Summer Theater Festival produces 8 original, full-length plays and musicals by women, trans, & non-binary writers in the heart of New York City. Read on below for more information about the application process!
About the SheNYC Summer Theater Festival
what is a theater festival?
A 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 on your own. If you’ve done developmental 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!
There is no participation fee to participate in the Festival, and we provide all the aforementioned shared resources for you and the other shows.
Production Photos from the 2022 SheNYC Summer Theater Festival. Photo Credit: Shoshana Medney (@bwaysho)
SheNYC Provides:
THEATER RENTAL
The rental of an off-Broadway theater and all of the equipment that goes inside of it:
- Lighting & curtain package
- Laptop with Q-lab and speaker system for sound cues
- Miscellaneous tech items like gaff tape, common tools, etc
- A 5-hour long tech slot to tech your show
- General Liability Insurance for your time inside the theater
THEATER STAFF
We provide the staff IN the theater to make your tech and performances run smoothly, including:
- Our Festival producing team, who manage producing the Festival as a whole and are there to help you throughout the process
- A Production Manager and Associate Production Manager to run your tech and call your show
- A lighting designer to design your lights and program the light board during your tech
- A sound technician to make sure your sound cues run smoothly
- 1-2 additional backstage crew members to use in a way that best fits your show
- Full front of house staff – Ushers, Box Office, Concessions, and House Manager
SOME SET PIECES & PROPS
- We provide some limited miscellaneous set pieces that will be shared by all of the shows, exact pieces TBD. In the past, we’ve had tables, chairs, cots and couches to offer to all of our productions. Our Production Manager will poll the shows in advance of tech to get an idea of what the furniture needs may be.
- We also have a Materials for the Arts (MFTA) membership, which provides free materials for arts nonprofits. We’ll set up a visit to their warehouse in Queens so you can get free set, props, and costume items.
THEATER EQUIPMENT
- An upright piano in the theater.
- A rep lighting plot that all the shows will share.
- A rep speaker plot that all the shows will share.
- Stationary curtains hung on the stage that all the shows will utilize.
MARKETING & ADVERTISING
- We have a marketing campaign advertising the festival as a whole with social media ads, Google Ads, and various ads on other digital outlets that theatergoers frequent.
MISCELLANEOUS
Some other tools and items we provide are:
- 12% of ticket sales from your show
- A $200 stipend
- Playbill for all shows
- A closing night party with awards determined by a panel of industry judges
- Full ticketing system managed by SheNYC Box Office staff
- Production photography & videography
- Select performances will get live captioning and/or ASL interpretation
- A life-long community of artists who will support all of your work in the future!
You Provide:
CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM
You are responsible for casting your show, though we’ll help out with a shared casting call. You also bring your own director, and any other creative team members that you think you need to build the world of your show. Just note that with limited tech and load-in time, we recommend you keep it simple!
DESIGN PIECES
- Any additional set, costumes, and props that aren’t covered by our shared pieces or MFTA warehouse.
- If your show requires a band, you/your musicians should bring their own instruments beyond a piano.
REHEARSAL STUDIO SPACE
You handle the entire rehearsal process before you get into the SheNYC Theater. Booking rehearsal studios tends to be the biggest expense in your budget, so we have some partnerships with local studios to get you discounts on those costs, including free space in Brooklyn from our partnership with The Bechdel Project.
“ELBOW GREASE” MARKETING
While we manage paid ads for the festival, we need your help to spread the word about your show to your networks! You likely won’t need or want to put money into this — just some old-fashioned effort of starting an Instagram for your show, emailing your network to let them know about your performances, and otherwise spreading the word to family & friends.
Pictured: a rehearsal photo from DANCING GIRL by Elinor T & Drew Vanderburg, SheNYC 2019. Photo credit: Shoshana Medney.
Festival Timeline
SEPTEMBER 28-NOVEMBER 5, 2026: Script submissions open. You’ll be able to submit your application and script any time until November 5 at 11:59pm PST.
FEB-MARCH 2027:We will notify you if you’re a finalist for the Festival.
APRIL 2027: We notify all shows of their acceptance to the festival. (We will also let you know if you're not accepted.) You then accept your slot.
MAY: All the fun stuff starts! We'll kick things off with a meet and greet/info session. You'll lock down a director and start casting your show.
JUNE: Start rehearsals for your show! This is the part where you and your creative team take over. Our staff will be checking in about your progress, answer any questions, and to help market your show. NOTE that you will only have 5 hours to tech your show, and 15-30 minutes to load-in and load out, so we recommend you keep it simple when it comes to tech elements.
JULY: The SheNYC Festival will run for two weeks in mid-July 2026 -- exact dates TBD.
Each show will get a 5-hour tech slot (where you do a cue-to-cue and dress rehearsal), followed by 2 performances within those two weeks. We will also leave a few empty performance slots in the schedule so that any show that sells out its first two performances can add extra performances. We'll then close things out with a Closing Night Party for everyone to celebrate their hard work.
ready to apply?
artist directory
Are you a stage manager, director, choreographer, musical director, or designer? Add your name to our Artist Directory. We’ll send the writers this list of artists as a reference to help them fill in any blanks on their production teams. (Note that we don’t take actors on the Artist Directory – we will have a separate casting call in May for actors).
Pro Tip: Write “Festival Producer” or “Festival Volunteer” under “what’s your specialty” if you’re interested in volunteering for the Festival as a whole!
The SheNYC Summer Theater Festival is funded in part by the generous support of:
Public Funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in Partnership with the City Council
The Jonathan and Rae Corr Family Foundation
The TDF TAP Fund
The New York State Council on the Arts
Live captioning for select in-person performances provided by Access Broadway. We are working on setting up the captioning system now, and plan to update this page by the end of June with the selected performances.
Need captioning for a specific performance? Email us at ticketing@shenycarts.org!
We’re so grateful to THE BECHDEL PROJECT for providing rehearsal space to our shows! Learn more and book their space at bechdelproject.org.