Boise Contemporary Theater Calls For Submissions For BIPOC Playwrights Festival

Boise Contemporary Theater is now accepting submissions for its fourth annual BIPOC Playwrights Festival, tentatively scheduled for August 15-24. Founded in 2021 with assistance from the Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation, the festival seeks to champion emerging and mid-career playwrights from marginalized communities by connecting exceptional works with professional actors, directors, and technicians. 

2024 also marks the launch of the Young Playwrights Initiative, which will select one unproduced work by a writer between 18 and 25 years old for inclusion in the lineup.   

Past BIPOC Festival Playwrights include Juan Jose Alfonso, Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters, Debra Ann Byrd, Jeanne Sakata, Vinecia Coleman, Jason Tseng, Novid Parsi, LaDarrion Williams, and Herb Newsome. 

Middle of the World, by Juan Jose Alfonso, was developed at the inaugural festival and received a world premiere production at BCT in 2023, with a subsequent Los Angeles Premiere in 2024. BCT will present the world premiere of Novid Parsi's play, The Life You Gave Me, in the spring of 2025, directed by Kimberly Senior.

BCT has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $25,000 to support BCT’s 4th Annual BIPOC Playwrights Festival.

Writers will have four to five days of rehearsal to workshop their piece with a director and cast, followed by two staged readings of their work on the BCT MainStage.

Travel, lodging, and a $1,000 artist stipend will be provided.   

To apply for the 2024 BIPOC Playwrights Festival, please complete this Google Form no later than Sunday, May 5, 11:59 pm MST: https://forms.gle/u39Lyah8oG1cDey98.

For general information on the festival, visit bctheater.org/bipoc.