Carolina Playwrights Lab
Developing original plays by playwrights of BOTH Carolinas
The Carolina Playwrights Lab is a premiere, professional new works development program for playwrights residing in North and South Carolina. CPL provides a robust set of tools and space for playwrights to dig deep and develop their plays in hopes of taking the next step in the journey to full production.
The 2025 Carolina Playwrights Lab will develop 2 full-length, original plays over 3 weeks with 2 staged-reading presentations of each play for public audiences. Selected pieces will be chosen through a multi-step reading and scoring process by a seasoned reading committee. At the heart of this experience is the opportunity for playwrights to receive moderated feedback sessions with a panel of 3 local and national industry professionals after each presentation of their work. These sessions are intended to inspire brave edits in the week between presentations and beyond!
Selected pieces will receive the following:
- Rehearsal facilities will be provided for a 2 week, in-person, rehearsal process, equipped with printers to implement live edits – we love new pages!
- Each piece will be assigned a professional creative team including a seasoned director, dramaturg, stage manager, as well as a qualified cast
- 2 staged readings for the public in a local venue
- Basic technical capabilities with a sound designer and lighting designer
- 3 panelists, locally and out-of-state, will provide moderated critique after each presentation, along with playing a key role in the script editing process
- Playwright Compensation – $500, PLUS HOUSING if outside the greater Triangle area (NC)
The 2025 Carolina Playwrights Lab will be held from June 23rd – July 12th
Performance Location:
TR Studio Theatre, 3027 Barrow Drive, Raleigh, NC, 27616
2025 Carolina Playwrights Lab
Submission Requirements
Submission Window: January 6 – February 2, 2025
Playwright must be from NC or SC and have a valid, current address
Blind submissions only. Please remove any identification, contact information, and credits from your script.
Selected playwrights from the previous year may not submit – must wait 1 cycle before submitting again
You must be the sole author of the play you are submitting to CPL, and the exclusive owner of all rights to the play. You may submit an original or adapted work, provided that the rights to any material not in the public domain have been granted in writing and a copy of the release is submitted with your script.
Only 1 piece by a playwright will be accepted – multiple submissions are not allowed
Play must be written in correct format – *example:
“First Drafts” will not be accepted – play must be mature in development
Minimum page count of 70 pages – plays under the minimum page count are ineligible
Your play must not have had a full production, or be licensed or optioned to have a professional production, prior to June 1, 2025. If you have any questions about this, please reach out to the CPL Selections Process Manager, Chanda Branch, at Chanda@capitalartstheaterguild.com.
If your play has previously received—or is scheduled to receive—a developmental workshop, reading, or staged reading prior to June 1, 2025, you must disclose that information in your CPL application.
- If your play receives a workshop, reading, staged reading, or is optioned after submitting your application, please inform the Selections Process Manager, Chanda Branch, via email at Chanda@capitalartstheaterguild.com as soon as possible. Failure to disclose additional development could affect your application’s standing.
Musicals are ineligible
- Please visit our page for the National Music Theater Foundry to find out more about our musical development ventures!
Screenplays are ineligible
Late submissions will not be accepted
The administrative fee for CPL 2025 is $15 per script submission. This helps offset the costs of the application process itself: its organization, staffing, administration, and submission platform.
- Only complete applications will be accepted. If we discover an error or omission in your application, then CATG will contact you by email. You will have 48 hours to correct your materials. If your application is not corrected, it will be withdrawn from consideration and your fee will not be refunded.
2024 SELECTIONS
Sea Change
by Tamara Kissane, Pittsboro, NC
The year is 2092 in an America hobbled by climate change, wealth discrepancy, and scarcity. As she races to preserve whatever remains, National Archivist Miranda Hayes is called back to the coast of North Carolina to say goodbye to her dying mother. Can Miranda preserve the crumbling family home and fractured relationships she left behind? Does she want to?
Tamara Kissane is a NC-based playwright, parent, and podcaster for Artist Soapbox. She was the Piedmont Laureate in 2020.
Her play NICE WHITE PARENTS 2016 was the winner of the 2023 New Play Project and Mark Gilbert Award, and was selected and featured in the first annual North Carolina Playwrights Lab in 2021. Her plays, THE NEW COLOSSUS and MASTER BUILDER were commissioned and performed by Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern in 2016 & 2018. Honest Pint Theatre commissioned Tamara to write a new musical with composer Matthew Hager; AWAY HOME has been workshopped at TheatreFest in 2023 & 2022 and is currently in development.
Her plays and monologues have been presented throughout the Triangle and Triad of NC including: Creative Greensboro, PlayMakers Repertory, University Theater at NC State, Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, Burning Coal Theatre, Seed Art Share, Curious Theatre Collective, and Mad Cow Theatre. Tamara co-produces live play readings and community conversations with Jules Odendahl-James as part of Theater Book Club.
Through her podcast and production studio, Artist Soapbox, Tamara has produced, written, and directed a variety of audio dramas including Jesus Pancake (2022), ASBX Shorts (2021), Declaration of Love Anthology (2020), The New Colossus (2020), Master Builder (2019), Creekside with Winona (2021), Trailblazer: Mabel Lee (2022), with several in development. Her live audio drama events, ASBX LIVE, are a co-production with Capital Arts Theater Guild.
Sitting For Suzie
by Albert Dulin, Charlotte, NC
At her beach cottage on Pawleys Island, SC, Suzie Turner, nationally known painter, awaits the arrival of her son Grey, a Chicago heart surgeon. He is there to have his portrait done for a new hospital wing. As he sits for his mother, old wounds surface and painful secrets are revealed, all while a hurricane is about to hit the island.
Charlotte, NC native Albert Dulin is a writer, artist and musician. He graduated from East Carolina University with a degree in art with a minor in drama. In between sketching and painting, he studied set and costume design, writing, acting and directing.
Following college, he worked in television, where he was art director and news cinematographer. Flash forward to 2020; he retired after running his own corporate video production company. He has published a novel, “Billie Heartwing.” In 2022, his play “Doctor Rocket’s Last Night on Earth”, co-written with Arthur Duke Ernsberger, premiered at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, NC.
He is a regular play reader in George Gray’s Cold Reads group and a judge for Judy Simpson Cook’s “We Love Short Shorts” play festival and the national Jewish Plays Project. He is currently writing a musical based on the life of Italian American sculptor Attilio Piccirilli and his five marble carving brothers, as well as a drama about a local television cowboy.
He is the father of two very talented children and six amazing grandchildren. He spends his time drawing, writing, traveling with his partner Maddy and playing fiddle and mandolin with several music groups.
Meet our 2024 GUEST PANELIST
Aaron Posner
Aaron Posner is a theatre director, playwright, teacher, former Artistic Director of two major regional theatres, and a tenured Professor at American University. He was the founding Artistic Director of Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre, and ran Two River Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey. He has directed nearly 200 productions at major regional theaters across the country, including American Players Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Chicago Shakespeare, The Folger, Ford’s Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Round House, Seattle Rep, Signature Theatre, South Coast Rep, Studio Theatre, and many more. As a playwright, his re-imaging of Chekhov’s The Seagull, entitled Stupid Fucking Bird, was one of the ten most produced plays in the US in 2015 and has had more than 250 productions worldwide. His other widely produced and published plays include JQA, Life Sucks, No Sisters, District Merchants, The Chosen, My Name Is Asher Lev, and more. He has won 20 regional theatre awards, including Helen Hayes Awards, Barrymore Awards, The Outer Circle Critics Award, and the John Gassner Prize. He lives near Washington D.C. with his wife, actress Erin Weaver, and his amazing daughter, Maisie.
Be On The Selections Committee
Are you an avid reader of plays? If so, are you interested in having your voice heard in the NCPL Selections Process? We are looking for seasoned theater advocates of all disciplines to join our team! The NCPL Selections Committee is a volunteer reader group who would be reading and evaluating anywhere from 2 to 7 plays over the course of 7 weeks. You only take on what you feel comfortable with! Apply Today!
Please send along any questions to our Selections Process Manager, Chanda Branch, at Chanda@capitalartstheaterguild.com