The 15th Annual National Jewish Playwriting Contest

The Jewish Plays Project (David Winitsky, Artistic Director) and The Weitzman are thrilled to bring the Finals of the National Jewish Playwriting Contest to Philadelphia for the first time, thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Jewish Plays Project (“JPP”), the nation’s most influential development company for new Jewish plays, is proud to be partnering with the Weitzman, Theatre Ariel (Philadelphia’s Jewish theater company), the Kaiserman JCC, Tribe 12, Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel and Society Hill Synagogue to present its signature event on Independence Mall during the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of our country. 

“Right now, we need positive and complex Jewish stories out in front of as audience members as we can,” said Mr. Winitsky, “and these stunning new plays already making a difference. Now we need everyone to come out and help us choose which ones are the most important and the most compelling.”

This one-of-a-kind event is a combination of a TED Talk, a play reading and American Idol. Artistic Director David Winitsky will speak on the state of new Jewish drama, three plays are introduced by a video from the playwright, 20-minute excerpts are read by a group of stellar Philadelphia actors, and then the audience gets to vote on the National Winner. 

The winning play will be presented in a workshop reading at the Festival of New Jewish Plays in New York this fall. Past finalists and winners have gone on to be produced Off-Broadway, and at Atlantic (NYC), the Geffen (LA), the Alliance (Atlanta), Berkeley Rep (CA), and at dozens of theaters in the U.S., Israel, Canada and Mexico, playing for more than 140,000 audience members. 

The National Finals are the culmination of a 10-city, 1,000 audience member process which the JPP calls Artistic Democracy. The finalists for the National Jewish Playwriting Contest were selected from over 355 submissions from 32 states and 8 countries by ppanels of arts and Jewish luminaries in New York, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Boston, Hartford, Tel Aviv, Houston, Philadelphia and Toronto.  

Top 3 Finalists Coming Soon…

About The Jewish Playwriting Contest

The Jewish Playwriting Contest seeks to discover, highlight, and nurture contemporary Jewish drama by engaging with artistic and Jewish communities throughout the English-speaking world. The Contest has received and vetted over 2,800 plays by 1,800 writers in 34 states and 10 countries. The JPP has actively developed 60 of those plays,419 of which have gone on to production in cities across the globe, including New York, Los Angeles, London, and Tel Aviv, playing for more than 100,000 audience members.

About The Jewish Plays Project

The Jewish Plays Project, founded in 2011, identifies, develops, and presents new works of theater via one-of-a-kind explorations of contemporary Jewish identity between audiences, artists, and patrons. The JPP’s innovative and competitive development process engages Jewish communities in the vetting, selecting, and championing of new voices and secures mainstream production opportunities for the best new pla 

The JPP has featured some of the best artists working in New York, including writers David Hein and Irene Sankoff (Come from Away), Robert Askins (Hand to God), and Lauren Yee (Cambodian Rock Band); directors Marc Bruni (Beautiful), Stephen (A Strange Loop), and Tamilla Woodard (Yale School of Drama); and actors Joshua Malina (The West Wing, Billions), Ronald Guttman (Mad Men, Homeland), Alysia Reiner (Orange is the New Black), and Obie and Drama Desk nominee Marcia Jean Kurtz.

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