Ensemble Theatre Hosts 2025 Playwriting Competition

Tristate-area playwrights, it’s your time to shine! Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati hosts the seventh annual PLAY/write: The Jackie Demaline Regional Collegiate Playwriting Competition, held in memory of writer, critic, and arts advocate, Jackie Demaline. Students currently enrolled full- or part-time at a university or college in the Greater Cincinnati region are encouraged to submit their plays to the competition. Dependent upon submissions, up to three winners may be chosen. Winners will receive $2,500 from the Jackie Demaline Fund and a professionally staged reading of their script. 

Demaline’s love of the arts started at a young age. Throughout her life, she continued to be a passionate believer in the arts as an entertainment writer and editor for multiple newspapers and publications. After moving to Cincinnati in 1994, she covered theatre and the arts for The Cincinnati Enquirer for 20 years and worked as an important catalyst for change and growth during a time when new theatres and companies were popping up all over Cincinnati, helping to secure their place in the community. 

After a four-year battle with cancer, Demaline passed away on June 17, 2018. As her final gift to the community, she arranged for her estate to fund the PLAY/write competition. Through this, her legacy lives on—providing new voice development, kick-starting arts careers, and caring for the community through thoughtful programming.

Submission guidelines:

WHO: 

• Early-career playwrights under the age of 30 currently enrolled at a university or college within a 75-mile radius of the Greater Cincinnati region. Playwrights cannot have had a professional or Equity production of any of their work.

WHEN: 

• Submission deadline: 11:59 pm EST, May 31, 2025.

WHAT: 

• Original, unpublished full-length plays (minimum of 50 pages) written in English. Translations, musicals, adaptations, and children’s plays not accepted.
• Plays must be typed and page-numbered in either a PDF or Microsoft Word format. Plays must appear in a professional script format, examples of which can be found on the Dramatists Guild of America website.
• Subject matter is open; however, the play should address some of the characteristics Jackie considered when critiquing theatre:
• Does it tell me something I didn’t know about myself or the world in which I live?
• Does it hold up a mirror at an angle I’ve never tried so that the things I know now suddenly possess new meaning?
• Does it move me? Excite me? Provoke me?
• Does it make me laugh or cry? Make me uncomfortable? Make me think? 

HOW: 

• Submit your script electronically at www.ensemblecincinnati.org/playwriting-competition
• If you have questions about the competition or submission process, please email Jared D. Doren, Programming & Events Manager, at jdoren@ensemblecincinnati.org

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