Submit a play to
The Sarasota players new play festival

The Sarasota Players is proud to announce the acceptance of new plays for its Sarasota Players New Play Festival through May 1, 2025.  A committee of judges will select five plays to be presented in a “Reader’s Theater” style format during the month of August.  One of the winning plays will be selected as “Best of Series” and will be workshopped and produced depending on the availability of space in the summer season of 2026.  

Guidelines:

• Entrant must be a resident of the Gulf Coast area (defined for this contest as extending from Tampa/Clearwater to Fort Myers) and over the age of 18.
• Full-length plays are preferred but one-acts will be considered.
• Maximum number of performers needed to produce the play is 10.  Playwrights are asked to delineate if there are multiple roles that can be doubled.
• Manuscripts must be submitted digitally to amandah@theplayers.org in 12-point font with playwrights’ biographies included in a single PDF.
• No evaluations will be rendered with any entries not selected.
• Author (and collaborator, if any) may submit only one script per year.
• Play must not have had prior production, although those workshopped before non-paying audiences are acceptable.
• Published plays are not eligible.
• Entries that have been previously submitted to The Players ARE eligible, but only if the work has been substantially re-written.
• Musicals are not accepted.

Deadline is May 1, 2025 for our 2025 festival.

Winning selections

At least 5 entries will be presented in rehearsed readings during the festival.

Winning entries will have a director assigned (if there is someone you’d like to use we will take that into consideration). There can be only two rehearsals, not including the rehearsal prior to the performance of the piece.  Playwrights are responsible for supplying updated and corrected copies of their script to their director and cast. Plays not following the guidelines listed above will be disqualified.6