The Garden State New Play Festival is a groundbreaking initiative devised by the Jersey City Theater Center (JCTC), The New Jersey Play Lab (NJPL), and the Department of Theatre and Dance's BA Theatre Studies Program at Montclair State University. This innovative model reimagines the approach to new play development and festivals, fostering a supportive environment for playwrights while actively engaging audiences and communities.

By fostering collaboration and growth among playwrights at all career stages, The Garden State Play Festival seeks to elevate individual artistry through tailored support mechanisms such as dramaturgical guidance, workshops, and exchange opportunities. Through this holistic approach, the initiative aims to dismantle barriers to producing full productions of new plays by cultivating a vibrant ecosystem that values and champions the power of playmaking.

Through The Garden State Festival,  JCTC, NJPL, and Montclair State University aspire to cultivate a renewed commitment and investment in the transformative potential of new play production, fostering a dynamic interplay between artists, audiences, and communities.

Plays in all styles and traditions that center around social justice (locally, nationally, or globally) will be considered. Social Justice can mean many things so we encourage playwrights to think broadly, individually, and personally around this topic. There are no residency restrictions on submissions, but playwrights will be expected to be in-person in Jersey City on a number of occasions between October 2024 and May 2025.  There is assistance with housing but travel costs are not included and will be the responsibility of the playwright.

Playwrights may use this link to send in their submission.

Playwrights must submit and will be chosen for this new play festival in one of the following categories:

* Working or Career Playwrights (This category is for writers who consider playwriting to be their primary career path.)

* Beginning or Non-Career Playwrights (This category may include writers who are relatively new to the full-length format, or writers who have been creating plays for years but have opted for an alternative professional career path).

In addition, other participants in this multi-faceted festival will include community members from Jersey City-based advocacy groups, student playwrights from local universities and high schools, and an international artist either from abroad, or from one of the area's thriving immigrant populations. These participants will be chosen through partner organizations.

All of these artists will engage in a 6 month (October-March) development and exchange program under the dramaturgical guidance of The NJPL, with assistance and mentored participation from Dramaturgy Students and Alumni from The BA Theatre Program at Montclair State University . Their work will culminate in a New Play Festival presented at JCTC in April or May.

Throughout the course of the 6-month process, the career playwrights will receive intensive and sustained dramaturgical support on the plays which will then form the centerpiece of the New Work Festival in the spring. The playwrights will also visit the BA Theatre students at Montclair State University  as a guest lecturer and will lead playwriting workshops conceived around their strengths and interests as artists for all of the other participants in the Festival program.

This new approach to new play development aims to bring artists of all career levels together without barriers of hierarchy, and to blur the lines between artist and audience, while still respecting the integrity of each individual artist’s craft and experience. It aims to frame the art of playmaking as a means of expression and advocacy, and as a tool for deeper understanding of self and one’s surroundings. It aims to detract from an emphasis on quality and viability and place the focus on intention and communication. It aims to serve as a model for how to truly bring audiences into the process of playmaking through cultivating and honoring their own artistic impulses, thus simultaneously inspiring more people to create art and fostering an audience with an appreciation and appetite for new work on the stage.