TNT POPS! Playwriting Competition

Theatre Network of Texas, Inc.(TNT) administers the TNT’s Production of Original PlayS (TNT POPS!) Competition every two years. The submission dates for the 2023-25 TNT POPS! New Play Project are August 1st through September 29th, 2023. Each play selected will be produced between March 2024 – December 2025, either on a mainstage or in a second space, by a TNT member theatre company.

TNT POPS! Submission Guidelines

Scripts Submission Dates:

  • SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 2023 – 25 TNT POPS! ARE NOW CLOSED

Script Submission requirements:

  • Email only (no hard copies accepted) – One (1) Microsoft Word document or pdf file;

Script Submission Limit:

  • 1 script per playwright. Scripts previously produced, in production and/or plays considered to be produced in the years 2023 – 2025 are not eligible for submission. Educational theatre productions do fall into the “previously produced” category. Workshops or readings of scripts are not considered “previously produced”.

Length:

Full Length (50 page minimum)

  • The script includes set requirements.
  • The script includes a cast list.
  • The script includes brief character description(s).
  • The script does NOT contain playwright name and/or contact information. This information should be on the submission form only.

Type Size:

  • 12 pt Times New Roman or 12 pt Courier.

Format:

  • Standard Stage Format. Final Draft format is acceptable – but must be saved and sent as a Microsoft Word document or PDF file.

Topic or theme:

  • Open – Please label script – i.e.: Comedy, Drama, Tragedy, Mystery, etc.

Cost:

Non Refundable Submission Fee – $25.* **

*TNT members at the Quad Level are able to submit for $15 as a membership perk. Email plays@texastheatres.org for verification.

** Members of Playwrights Guild of Canada and Dramatists Guild of America may submit at a cost of $15 with membership verification. Email plays@texastheatres.org for verification.

Winning selections announced at our TEXFest Conference in February, 2024.

Play Reader Application
TNT POPS! Producing Theatre Form
TNT POPS! Process & Prizes

2022 Selected Playwrights

On July 8th, 2022, Theatre Network of Texas, Inc. was happy to announce the first two selected playwrights and plays to be produced for the 2021-13 TNT POPS! Competition. These playwrights will have their winning plays presented at a TNT member theatre in 2023.

The selected playwrights are:

Copper Angel by Emily McClain
March 31 – April 9, 2023
Boerne Community Theatre, Boerne
Emily McClain is a theatre educator and playwright. She is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild, Working Title Playwrights, New Play Exchange, and WriteStuffATL. Additionally, Emily is an associate artist with the some bodies theatre collective, a group dedicated to new play development in Atlanta. She is one of the theatre faculty at the new School of the Arts @ Central Gwinnett. She holds an M.Ed in Arts Integration in the Curriculum from Lesley University. Her play Slaying Holofernes, was co-winner of the 2019 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award. She is a two-time finalist for the Risk Theatre Tragedy competition with her plays Children of Combs and Watch Chains (2020) and The Rock & The Hard Place (2021). Her plays have been staged locally at Out of Box Theatre, Merely Players, Atlanta AppCo Alumni, and Actor’s Express, and nationally at Raze The Space (Los Angeles, CA), Theatre Oxford (Oxford, MS), Eden Prairie Players (Eden Prairie, MN), Snowdance (Racine, WI). She is published through ArtAge and Next Stage Press. More of her work may be found on New Play Exchange: Emily McClain | New Play Exchange 
Techies by Mark Rigney
January 2023
Bastrop Opera House, Bastrop

Mark Rigney is the author of Deaf Side Story: Deaf Sharks, Hearing Jets and a Classic American Musical (Gallaudet), and his stage plays have been produced in twenty-three U.S. states (including off-Broadway) plus Australia, Austria, Hong Kong, Nepal, and Canada. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and a past winner of the John Gassner Playwriting Award, the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Prize, and the Panowski Playwriting Award (twice). Recent work has been part of Next Act! (Capital Rep, Albany, NY). Additional published work is available from Playscripts, Inc., Next Stage Press, ArtAge, Heartland, Applause, and multiple editions of Smith & Kraus’s The Best Ten-Minute Plays. Over seventy of his short stories have found print, in venues ranging from literary (Witness, The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review) to fantasy and horror (Lightspeed, Tales from the Magician’s Skull, Cemetery Dance). When not adding to his extensive collection of antique brewery items, he maintains lively outposts at his website, http://www.markrigney.net/, and at the New Play Exchange.

2018 Selected Playwrights

On March 18th, 2018, Theatre Network of Texas, Inc. was happy to announce the first two selected playwrights and plays to be produced for the 2017-19 TNT POPS! Competition. These playwrights will have their winning plays presented at a TNT member theatre in 2019.

The selected playwrights are:

Philosophous
February 22nd – 24th, 2019
Plaza Theatre, Wharton

Colin Speer Crowley is a playwright-lyricist who has written a variety of dramatic works, including three musicals, nine straight plays, a rock opera, and a few screenplays. His work has been presented throughout the United States, including California, Washington, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Louisiana, Colorado, Kentucky, Texas, and New Jersey. Additionally, Crowley has had the pleasure of seeing his work performed in theatrical capitals on both sides of the Atlantic, including Off-Off-Broadway and London’s Covent Garden. Crowley is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Lambs Club, the Playwright’s Center, the New Play Exchange, and Phi Beta Kappa and also served as founder and President of the theatrical group Speerhead Theatricals, Inc.

Shouting Down A Quiet Life
December 5th – 14th, 2019
Rover Dramawerks, Plano

Holli Harms: Winner of the Terrence G. Hall Fellowship, Dramatist Guild Fellow, EST/Sloan Grant Recipient, 2 time Finalist with Nantucket Playwriting Competition, and finalist with Great Plains Writing Competition.  Commissioned by 365 Women A Year to write a play about science fiction writer, Octavia E. Butler.  Produced by Estrogenius Festival NYC, Edgemar Center Santa Monica, City Theatre Miami…Her play Make John Patrick Shanley Go Home, published in Smith & Krause anthology of 50 Best Ten Minute Plays.  Her play Cougar is published in The City Theatre Anthology.  Member of Ensemble Studio Theatre. Contributing writer for Verbal Supply Company NYC.

Subsistence
August 9th – 11th, 2019
Encore Arts, Katy

Originally from Texas, Sally Jane Kerschen-Sheppard has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, a M.F.A. from Southampton College, and a M.A. from Oklahoma State University. She isthe author ofLunch DateandLast Inning(published by Heuer Publishing), East Harlem, The Crazy Side of Normal, It’ll Do, and several other short plays.Sally Jane is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America.

THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS

The TNT POPS! New Works Contest is generously underwritten by a grant from the Jack K. Ayre Frank Ayre Lee Theatre Foundation.