Contest applicants must be enrolled as full-time students (at least 12 credits for undergrad and 6 credits for graduate students) at Brigham Young University in either semester of the 2023-2024 school year.
1. This contest has cash awards and possible staged readings for the winning plays as part of the TMA’s WDA program. Play categories are:
a) ten minute plays (up to 12 pages in length)
b) one act plays (between 30 and 45 pages in length)
c) full length plays (75 pages and above)
2. The amounts of the cash prizes will vary each year and are determined at the discretion of the contest judges. The total allotment this year for the contest is $1,850. For example, judges may award prizes to the writer of the best play in each category, or they may, when the quality of the entries warrants, divide the prize between two or more student playwrights in each category, evenly or otherwise as their judgment dictates. If no play of sufficient merit is submitted in any or all of the given categories, the award(s) will be withheld.
3. Only stage plays are eligible. Collaborations are permissible, but collaborators must be individually eligible. Any original play will be eligible regardless of the style or content as long as it conforms to the standards of good taste. Musical books or libretti, together with lyrics, are eligible, but they will be judged as dramatic rather than musical compositions. Any script submission has to be new to this year’s competition (it cannot be a script that has been submitted in previous years’ competitions). All scripts will receive equal consideration. Translations or adaptations of other plays are ineligible.
4. Scripts should follow rules for standard playwriting formatting, preferably according to Dramatists Guild guidelines
5. Submissions will only be accepted between between January 8th and March 2nd, 2024 by 11:59 p.m.
6. The winner(s) will be announced at an awards ceremony later in the semester.
7. The Mayhew Awards Committee will appoint a judging committee. These will be drawn from the BYU Theatre and Media Arts faculty and other qualified artists and critics.
8. Each student submitting an entry will upload a PDF file of their entry and fill out the appropriate information giving name, address, and telephone number and certifying (a) that he or she is eligible by proper enrollment at BYU to enter the contest, and (b) that the entry submitted is the student’s own creative work. The student’s real name will appear only to the Mayhew contest organizers. Please do not put your name on the actual PDF entry itself, we ask instead that you put your student ID number in its place.
Important note: In addition to the specific rules above for the Playwriting Contest, see the “General Regulations” giving information on all Mayhew Student Creative Contests. Both the general regulations and the specific rules for each contest should be followed by every student who enters one or more of the contests.
WHEN LOGGING IN: Please note that you will be redirected to a WordPress dashboard. Once you are redirected, simply return to the respective Mayhew Contest page you were on and you should be logged in. If you have any issues logging in you can call 801-422-2775 or email humanities@byu.edu.
Contest Contact Information
Shelley Graham
Playwriting Contest Chairman
Office: 129 WCO
shelley_graham@byu.edu