A is For Play Contest Fine Print

Information about the contest:

  • Submissions were accepted through Saturday, January 31, 2026 11:59PM EST.

  • A qualified team of accomplished theatre and reproductive justice professionals will read and assess all entries.

  • Winners will be announced in the late Spring of 2026.

  • Only the three winners and seven runners up will be contacted directly by A is For once the jury has made its decisions. Please make sure you are on our mailing list and follow us on socials to stay updated.

  • Grand Prize will be awarded to one play which will receive $5,000.

  • The Second Place winner will be awarded $3,000, and the Third Place winner will be awarded $1,500. Only the top three plays will win monetary awards, but we will announce and post the top ten plays on our website with appropriate links.

  • All three winning plays will be presented as staged readings during our festival

Rules for Entry:

  • Submit one-act plays no longer than 90 minutes in length about reproductive justice, including (but not limited to) the topic of abortion.

  • If you have a full-length (or longer one-act) that you wish to submit, we recommend you submit a cutting of your choice that is no longer than 90 minutes in length. We will disqualify any material that is longer than 90 minutes.

    • Because we often get a lot of questions about this, the reason we have this rule is that our goal is to celebrate and amplify a variety of voices. Each year we celebrate three plays. We just don’t have the bandwidth or resources to accommodate the presentation of three plays, each potentially longer than 90 minutes, in one day. In the future we hope to expand the scope of this contest, but for the moment, we need to maintain these limits. Thank you for understanding.

  • Plays can be shorter than 90 minutes! They can be as short as a single page if you feel that’s sufficient to tell your story. Our winning play last year was 11 pages. 

  • Please include a cover page that lists the name of the playwright, and all relevant contact information, including professional representation, if applicable.

  • While you may not edit your entry after it is submitted, you may delete that entry and re-submit. But once the judging period begins, you will not be able to delete or edit your entry.

  • You may submit as many plays as you wish.

  • Please submit your plays (PDF only) on Award Force.Please do NOT email copies of your play directly to A is For. Plays will not be accepted by email.

  • Plays in languages other than English will be accepted as long as an accompanying English translation is also provided.

  • We will accept plays from anywhere in the world. 

  • We will accept plays from playwrights of all ages. 

  • We will not accept plays that have already been produced and/or are already published.

  • Should your play win one of the top three awards, it will be included in an anthology published by A is For which will be sold to benefit the programs of A is For. Entry to this contest implies consent for your play to be published in such an anthology. Playwrights will retain all copyrights to their material.

  • Prohibited from entry is any individual who:

    • is a Contest Judge, or an A is For Board or Staff member.

    • employs a Contest Judge, or an A is For Board or Staff member as an employee or agent.

    • owns or controls an entity for whom a Contest Judge, or an A is For Board or Staff member is an employee, officer, director, or agent.

    • has a material business or financial relationship with any Contest Judge, or an A is For Board or Staff member.

    • is a member of any immediate family of Contest Judge, or an A is For Board or Staff member.

      • For purposes hereof, the members of an individual’s immediate family include such individual’s spouse or domestic partner, children and step-children, parents and step-parents, and siblings and step-siblings.

  • All rules above are applied uniformly, but are void where prohibited by law.

  • We do require that you fill out the demographic questionnaire in order to complete your submission. Your answers help us to hold ourselves accountable for reaching as diverse a group of people as possible. You may select “prefer not to answer” for any question you are uncomfortable answering, but we do require that you complete the questionnaire for your entry to be considered.