Playwrights Foundation Reveals Finalists and Semi-Finalists for 47th BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL

Playwrights Foundation has revealed the semifinalists and finalists for the 47th Bay Area Playwrights Festival, which will be presented in a hybrid festival (both in-person and on demand options) in fall 2026, having recently shifted to a biennial schedule. BAPF continues to uphold its legacy as one of the oldest and most successful new play festivals uplifting playwrights' new works early in their career.

The festival received 601 applications from playwrights across the United States. Applicants underwent a thorough evaluation process, including review by Playwrights Foundation staff in collaboration with 148 committee readers- local and national theatre professionals serving as evaluators.

"These are challenging times," says Literary Manager Jeffrey Gan. "The depth of the challenges we face is matched by the vibrant, defiant spirit of the writing that we read during our selection process. Applicants for BAPF47 displayed remarkable humor, deep emotional insight, innovative style, and an indomitable spirit of creativity. Choosing between this strong pool has been no mean feat; the semifinalists and finalists we have selected absolutely deserve to reach audiences who seek plays which push the boundaries of American theater today."

From the pool of 601 applicant playwrights, 128 applicants were carefully chosen as semi-finalists based on the writer's unique voice and the play's potential for artistic and cultural impact that push the boundaries of traditional American theatre. From that group, readers and staff agreed on a shorter list of 37 finalists who bring a mix of refreshing perspectives, bold stories, and innovative theatrical forms, along with a diverse set of life journeys and varied levels of writing experience. Ultimately, four of these playwrights will be selected for inclusion in the festival lineup, which will be announced at a later date.

"I am proud of the broad representation of identities in our pool of applicants," adds Gan. "We had especially strong representation from queer and trans writers this cycle, and this year's script entries also featured 24 languages beyond English. Our applicants ranged in age from playwrights in their 20s to 70s, and from veterans of BAPF application cycles past to first-time playwrights."

Bay Area Playwrights Festival is one of the oldest and most successful new play festivals for new works in their early stages. Established in 1976 by acclaimed director Robert Woodruff, the festival has built a respected reputation for uplifting original and distinctive new voices in the theater, investing in the development of their work, and launching storied careers. More than 500 prize-winning, nationally significant playwrights have received one of their first professional experiences at the BAPF. BAPF's ongoing success in supporting and amplifying exceptional, newly emerging writers and launching their ground-breaking new work is its enduring legacy.

"The strength of this year's BAPF applicant pool shows the resilience of our playwright community who are continuing to write brave new work in the face of an administration who is trying to silence their voices from our history, narratives, and existence," says Executive Artistic Director Jessica Bird Beza. "At Playwrights Foundation, not only do we welcome, but we celebrate, affirm, and uplift those voices who have been historically excluded and are writing stories we have not heard in the traditional theatre space that represent a multitude of identities. This year's group of semi-finalists and finalists should be on every theater's reading lists and eventually their stages."

37 FINALISTS FOR THE 47th BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL

• Ali Littman, Banana Point

• A Yourd, Slash & the Space Cadet

• Ankita Raturi, No One Plays Badminton in America

• AriDy Nox, Death Comes in Threes

• Audley Puglisi, The Misplaced Saints

• AZ Espinoza, Caribbean King

• Carla Ching, Rage Play

• Cass Brayton, Lip Service

• christina michelle watkins, By the Banks

• Daria Miyeko Marinelli, Beautiful Blessed Child

• Davis Alianiello, Snake

• Deepak Kumar, Stories in Mother Tongues

• DJ Hills, come straight home

• Edwin Rivera-Arias, Stubbornness & Bone

• Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel, Lupe Finds Me in the Garden of Dreams

• Gaven D. Trinidad, Mercury Makes the Skin Glow

• Greg T. Nanni, Suicide Cowboys

• Hasti Jafari, Ministry of Gummy Worm

• Jaymes Sanchez, A Plausible History of Xicotencatl II

• Jordan Elizabeth Henry, Howling: A Fairytale

• Katherine Gwynn, Everything, Devoured

• Lisa Sanaye Dring, Golden Record Club

• M.J. Kang, James & Eddie

• Matthew Morishige, Work/Shoot

• Maxine Dillon, THE NEGROES HAVE RISEN

• Maya De La Rosa-Cohen, The First Three

• Minna Lee, Last Gold

• Monique Hafen Adams, On Blackwell's Island

• Nicholas Kaidoo, Under the Sovereign Pleasures of God

• P.C. Verrone, PIONEER

• Peter Kim George, EMPIRE LIQUOR

• Priya Mohanty, Diwali Party

• Rebs Chan, Brother, Brother, Brothers / 大哥，兄弟，弟兄們

• Forest Malley, French Boy Cigarettes

• Sam Mueller, At the Confluence of Creeks

• Sarah Galante, Swallow Me Whole

• Xavier Clark, ICONS

91 SEMIFINALISTS FOR THE 47TH BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL

• Aaron Higareda, Cry Now, Laugh Later

• Ai Ebashi, Act II

• Alec Silberblatt, RYAN'S PUB, TRIVIA NIGHT

• a.k. payne, Where Pathways Meet

• Ali Viterbi, Suicide Rom Com

• Alle Mims, A Soviet Film on Negro Life in America

• AJ Layague, Cowgirl Katarungan's Recipe for Adobo

• Alyssa Haddad-Chin, The Ancestry Dot Com Play

• Amanda L. Andrei, Helicopter Typhoon Carabao! Or, To Survive an Apocalypse Now

• Anderson John Heinz, POEM PLAY

• Anjali Ramakrishnan, Scars of Metamorphosis

• Ashil Lee, Me No Know Korean

• Borna Barzin, Like This

• Camille Simone Thomas, At God's Back

• Chad Kaydo, I Could Never

• Claire McNerney, Are We There Yet?

• Dan Caffrey, The Tusk Hunters

• Daniel Martinez Jr, Looking In

• David Davila, The Invisible Hand of God Touched Me in a Bad Place, an interactive power play

• elizabeth flanagan, HARRY AND MAURA

• Emma Ashford, The Light Place

• Emma Gibson, Sun-stopping

• Emma Schillage, COCKROACHES

• Emma Watkins, Pretend it's Pretend

• Emmy Weissman, Mikvah Girls

• Eric Reyes Loo, Replaced

• Esther Gatica, LatiNext

• Francisco Mendoza, Best Foreign

• Gabriela Tovar-Borghini, Gaitana

• Garrett David Kim, Where You Go When You're Gone

• Gloria Majule, Afropick

• Harriet Heydemann, Lessons From A Jellyfish

• Howard Ho, Moll-E

• Isabelle Fereshteh Sanatdar Stevens, THE RA PLAY

• J. Isabel Salazar, Circle of Five

• J Xiang, TOM & FORREST AT THE END OF THE WORLD

• Jeanne Dorsey, THE KIT: MADE BY MARTHA

• Jen Diamond, Pageant Play

• Jennifer Maisel, PROVENANCE

• Jessica Charles, Hot Girls Making Out

• Joey Capuana, f-ing Straight Guys

• John Minigan, Sarai's Knife

• John Anthony Loffredo, how to prepare for an existential crisis

• Julia Jennings, The Wash

• Kanika Asavari Vaish, Eight Ways to Plead with a God

• Karissa Murrel Myers, Blood of My Mother's

• Kira Rockwell, Holy Chicken Sandwich

• L M Feldman, SCRIBE, or THE SISTERS MILTON, or ELEGY FOR THE UNWRITTEN

• Laura Neill, Foot Wears House

• Lee Papa, Last Looks

• lingyue, Ordinary Women Nameless Women

• Luke Sorge, Taco Town

• Maddie Dennis-Yates, Vanessa the Miracle Girl

• Mallory Jane Weiss, Anaphora

• Marilyn Schotland, Perihelion

• Mario Vega, Our Lady of the San Diego Convention Center

• Matt Sievers-Shvyrkov, South South Alabama

• Megan Tabaque, Marry me, Bruno Mars

• Michael Quinn, The River East

• Michael Tod Edgerton, Cissy Nicky Unreciprocated: A Femme Mani-Feste & Queerling Fantastia in Scenes Unwed

• Michael Tuton, The Return of Honor to American Life

• Miriam BC Tobin, Light & Živý

• Miz Hashimoto, This Is Not a Noh Play

• ML Roberts, Solstice

• Nabra Nelson, Confessions (or the Secret Play for Secretly Liberal Muslims)

• Natalia Demko, DoGeeseSeeGod

• Philip Christian Smith, Walking While Black

• Rachel Bykowski, Polyphagia

• Robyn Brooks, THE GHOST OF GENEVIEVE BAPTISTE

• Samah Meghjee, Maybe You Could Love Me

• Sanjit Sengupta, Turbulence

• Sara Jean Accuardi, PULL

• Schaeffer Nelson, Sixth Grade As It Was

• Selah DeGering, Art Is Isaac

• Shanna Allman, Eve's Ale

• Shanti Reinhardt, Lehua's Blood

• Sheldon Skoboloff, You Never Existed

• SMJ, yo ho.

• Sophia Naylor, For A Brighter Tomorrow

• Sophie Neely, Feeny's Boodle Fight

• Spencer Huffman, The Baseball Gods

• Suli Holum, Layli Dove Stanton Outruns Them All

• Sunny Drake, Romeo & Jewels

• Susan Faust, Finding Wild

• Tee Hoida, We Were Made of Stardust

• Theresa Chiu, Omakase

• Tina Esper, TIGHT

• William Eames, State of Jefferson

• Yuge Ma, Transcendence

• Zizi Majid, Milk

• Zoe Stanton-Savitz, Twice Gone

Bay Area Playwrights Festival is one of the oldest and most successful new play festivals for new works in their early stages. Established in 1976 by acclaimed director Robert Woodruff, the festival has built a respected reputation for uplifting original and distinctive new voices in the theater, investing in the development of their work, and launching storied careers. Among the first writers developed at the inaugural BAPF was the young Sam Shepard. Since then, more than 500 prize-winning, nationally significant playwrights have received one of their first professional experiences at the BAPF, including Pulitzer Prize winners Nilo Cruz, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Paula Vogel, and Annie Baker; and acclaimed playwrights Lauren Gunderson, Rajiv Joseph, Katori Hall, Christopher Chen, Lauren Yee, and Marcus Gardley. BAPF's ongoing success in supporting and amplifying exceptional, newly emerging writers and launching their ground-breaking new work is its enduring legacy.