The Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition is back! Produced by The Miles Nadal JCC, this one-of-a-kind competition recognizes the most outstanding, unproduced, Canadian plays with a Jewish focus.
The winning playwright will receive $1,000 (CDN) and an 8-hour CAEA workshop with a director and up to six actors. This workshop concludes with a public reading. Generously supported by the Asper Foundation.
The 2025 competition is co-presented by Bema Productions (British Columbia), The Winnipeg Jewish Theatre (Manitoba), The Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company (Ontario), and The Segal Centre for the Performing Arts (Quebec).
Submission deadline is May 25, 2025.
Visit www.mnjcc.org/theatre for more information.
2025 CANADIAN JEWISH PLAYWRITING COMPETITION
A PROGRAM OF THE MILES NADAL JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTRE SINCE 1999
While we value and support stories centred on the Holocaust, we also seek plays set in the present that challenge the viewer. We encourage subjects and themes which explore interfaith, LGBTQ inclusion, diversity, Tikkun Olam, and universal values seen through a Jewish lens. We welcome submissions from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ2S+ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.
GUIDELINES:
• Plays must be in standard theatre script formatting.
• If you play has more than 6 roles, you must include a character sheet and demonstrate which roles can be played by the same actor
• The playwright’s name and any other identifying information (email, address, etc) must be REMOVED from the script before submitting
• Play pages must be numbered.
• Plays must be submitted as a pdf.
ELIGIBILITY:
• Playwrights do not need to be Jewish but must be Canadian (dual citizenship is acceptable).
• Playwrights with Canadian citizenship living abroad (i.e Israel, USA, Europe, etc.) are welcome to submit.
• Play content must have a Jewish focus, depicting a prominent theme or aspect of Jewish or Israeli life.
• Plays must be no less than one hour and no more than two hours in length (1 page of dialogue equals roughly 1 min of stage time)
• Novel, short story or poetry adaptations are accepted, but the playwright must have the rights to the original source, or the source of the adaptation must be in the public domain.
• Plays must be in English.
INELIGIBILITY:
• Plays that have been previously produced under a Canadian Actors’ Equity Association (CAEA) production agreement. Workshops are eligible.
• Plays that have been previously produced outside of the CAEA agreements and staged for more than one week, except for Fringe productions.
• Plays that have been previously submitted to the Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition in the last ten years.
• Plays with more than 6 roles that cannot be divide among 6 actors.
• Plays that are not written in English.
• Musicals are not eligible.
• Screenplays will not be accepted. Plays which include projector screens are eligible but must have notes within the stage directions listing when it is in use and what the audience will be viewing.
PRIZE:
• The winning playwright will receive $1,000 (CDN) and an 8-hour CAEA workshop with a director and up to six actors. This workshop concludes with a public reading.
• The winning playwright will be announced in September 2025.
• This program is generously funded by The Asper Foundation.
