Applications Open For The 2026 Stanley Drama Award

There's still time to submit your applications for the 2026 Stanley Drama Award! Administered by Wagner College Theatre, the top prize of $2,000.00 has been offered annually to an original full-length play, musical, or one-act play sequence that has not been professionally produced or received trade book publication.

The deadline for submissions is September 1, 2025, after which our esteemed panel of judges will determine the winner and finalists, to be announced in Spring 2026. Applicants are now welcome to submit their application online. The required reading fee of $32.00 can be paid online at https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?retail=wct01. Once the fee has been paid, please email stanleydramaaward@wagner.edu with a pdf copy of your completed application form, your manuscript, and a confirmation of payment for your reading fee. In the case of musicals, please also include digital links to the music. Please visit https://wagner.edu/performing-arts/stanley-drama/ for more information.

The Stanley Drama Award was established in 1957 by Staten Island philanthropist Alma Guyon Timolat Stanley and endowed through the Stanley-Timolat Foundation to encourage and support aspiring playwrights. Past winners include Terrence McNally's This Side of the Door (aka Things That Go Bump in the Night), Lonne Elder III's Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, and Jonathan Larson's Rent. Past judges include playwrights Edward Albee and Paul Zindel, actresses Geraldine Page and Kim Stanely, and TV producer/pioneer talk-show host David Susskind.