FutureFest Submissions

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR 2026

Festival dates: July 17 – 19, 2026. The Dayton Playhouse will hold the 2026 festival in person.

The submission deadline for FutureFest 2026 is October 31, 2025.

FEES

Please note our submission fee structure has changed, slightly, for 2026.

The “earlybird” fee for FutureFest 2026 script submissions is still $20 per script. This fee will be reduced 50% for members of the Dramatists Guild to $10. Earlybird fees will be in effect through October 14, 2025.

Script submissions between October 15 and October 31, 2025 will have a fee of $30 ($15 for Dramatist Guild members) per script.

Online payments are available by following this link to our online payment system.

Payment by check or money order, if preferred, should be made payable to “The Dayton Playhouse” and mailed to FutureFest 2026 ℅ Dayton Playhouse, P.O. Box 3017, Dayton, OH 45401-3017.

ELIGIBILITY

Your entry must be an original work written for THE STAGE and intended for an English-speaking audience*. No musicals or plays for children will be accepted. Plays must be full length with a run time of at least 75 minutes. The script must not have been published, or produced where admission was charged, prior to FutureFest 2026. Staged readings/workshop productions are not necessarily disqualifying factors. Playwrights may submit no more than two scripts for consideration for FutureFest 2026.

* Scripts may include phrases/sentences from other languages, even characters speaking in other languages, but the primary language of the script must be English.

DEADLINES

Submissions will be accepted August 4 through October 31, 2025 (electronic submission). The Dayton Playhouse will limit the total number of submitted eligible scripts to 325. Dayton Playhouse reserves the right to close submissions prior to October 31, 2025 should the submission limit be reached.

SCRIPTS

Electronic submissions of scripts are required. Scripts in PDF format are preferred. Word or Google Doc formats are acceptable.

Submit an anonymized copy (no name/contact info) of your script, in standard play format with pages numbered (page numbering is REQUIRED). After the title page, also include:

a brief synopsis (maximum 500 characters)
character breakdown
setting
scene breakdown, if applicable

The script submission form (the link is below) must be filled out for each script submission. If applicable, the form also provides the opportunity to submit an image of your Dramatists Guild membership card.

Please note that entries that do not comply with our guidelines will be disqualified. Scripts must be submitted electronically via the Submission Form or via email as an alternative method. Script evaluations will not be provided.

CONSENT

Playwright gives the Dayton Playhouse permission to print scripts for reading/production purposes.

Should your script be selected and produced as one of the five Finalists, you must be available to attend, in person, the weekend festival (July 17-19, 2026) in Dayton, Ohio and participate in all events. Finalists must acknowledge “FutureFest 2026 at the Dayton Playhouse” as well as the Festival cast when the script is published. The winning playwright grants the Dayton Playhouse permission to produce the winning play as part of its 2027-2028 mainstage season, at DPI’s discretion.

SELECTION PROCESS

Each entry is guaranteed a minimum of three reads. The First Play Reading Committee, following many months of reading, discussion and voting, narrows down the entries to 15 – 25, which are then read by the entire committee before they select the 12 semi-finalists. The Second Reading Committee selects the five finalists. During FutureFest weekend, the plays will each have a staged reading and be publicly adjudicated by a panel of theatre professionals (nationally-based and regional). Following the final production of the weekend, the adjudicators vote and select the winning script.

FINALISTS

Finalists will be posted on the Dayton Playhouse website (www.daytonplayhouse.com) in May 2026.

AWARDS

A $500 honorarium will be awarded to the winning playwright; all Finalists will each receive a $100 honorarium. The Dayton Playhouse provides the five Finalists travel (within the continental U.S.) to Dayton and lodging for FutureFest weekend.

The Dayton Playhouse reserves the right to produce a full production of the winning script for a future mainstage season, for an additional payment of $500 to the winning playwright. In that event, the show will have 6 performances over a two week period. Exact production dates would be “to be determined” but will fall between March 2027 and May 2028. The winning playwright will have the opportunity to update the script based on feedback from the FutureFest weekend and participate in the production process.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

All submitting playwrights must complete the submission form for each submitted script. Please click this link to access the Script Submission Form:

FutureFest 2026 Script Submission Form

Payment instructions are included in the form, including a link to the online payment system.

The form requires use of a Google account, and includes an option to upload script PDF documents. If you do not have or do not wish to use a Google account, as an alternative, you may e-mail the script to futurefest@daytonplayhouse.com. Please include in the body of the email your:

Name
Full mailing address
Email address
Website (optional)
Play title
Play synopsis (500 characters maximum)
Attach anonymized play in PDF format
Attach Proof of Dramatists Guild membership, if applicable

DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY

The Dayton Playhouse invites playwrights of all races and ethnicities, all gender identities, all physical abilities, and all ages to submit scripts for consideration as a Finalist for FutureFest 2026. The Dayton Playhouse seeks to learn if the diversity of our submitting playwrights aligns with the diversity of our FutureFest Finalists.

To do this, we ask the help of our submitting playwrights. At the end of the Script Submission Form is a link to an OPTIONAL anonymous Demographic Survey. Please consider completing this survey so we can better understand the level and types of diversity of our submitting playwrights. (Survey Link for Playwrights submitting by email.)

QUESTIONS

Contact Matt Lindsay, FutureFest 2026 Committee Co-Chair, at 937-424-8477, or email futurefest@daytonplayhouse.com.