New Play Contest – Hamilton Festival Theatre Company

New Play Contest

New Play Contest 2025 Winners

First Place: Crane Girl by Alexa Higgins from Toronto, ON

Second Place: Sex Goddess by Riel Reddick-stevens from Toronto, ON

Third Place: Knock Knock by Ron Fromstein from Toronto, ON

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED! Congratulations to this year’s winners:

First Place: Crane Girl by Alexa Higgins from Toronto, ON
Second Place: Sex Goddess by Riel Reddick-stevens from Toronto, ON
Third Place: Knock Knock by Ron Fromstein from Toronto, ON

Do you have an unproduced 60-minute play or musical hiding deep in a drawer waiting for the right moment? Maybe it’s still the tiniest seed of an idea and you’ve been waiting for a sign from the universe to finally write it out?

THIS IS THE SIGN YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR!

The Hamilton Fringe New Play Contest is open to ALL writers, no experience necessary. All submissions are anonymized and read by our jury.

The winner of the contest receives a FREE 60-minute production slot in the 2025 Hamilton Fringe Festival plus a $300.00 cash prize. 2nd and 3rd Place playwrights receive a festival Fringe Binge pass.

Interested in the New Play Contest?

Full application form available at the link below!

Apply Now

How to Enter

1. Read ALL the Rules & Regulations. (PAY CLOSE ATTENTION to how scripts should be formatted and uploaded ANONYMOUSLY – there should be no reference to the playwright/creator/collective on the pages of the script.)

2. Complete and submit the application form. Your submission must be received by 11:59 PM ET Thursday, November 14, 2024. DEADLINE EXTENDED TO THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2024 AT 11:59PM.

3. Pay the non-refundable $35 entry fee. Payments can be made online by PayPal when completing this application OR submitted by cheque in the mail. Payment is due within 5 business days of the online submission of this form.

Prizes and Notification

1. The winner of the New Play Contest, as selected by the jury, receives a free 60-minute performance slot in the 2025 Hamilton Fringe Festival for your production of the winning play or musical, plus a $300.00 CAD cash prize. The performance slot has no cash value and cannot be sold or transferred to another party. The winning playwright/creator/ collective must sign a Hamilton Fringe 2025 Application Form and abide by all festival policies and procedures.

2. Second and third place winners will each receive a Fringe Binge 6-Show Pass for the 2025 Hamilton Fringe Festival.

3. The top three winners will be announced at the Hamilton Fringe Festival’s Lottery Party this winter (event details will be shared at a later date).

Rules and Regulations

1. The Contest is open to all playwrights/creators/collectives.

2. Only one entry per playwright/creator/collective is permitted.

3. All entries must be a new, original, unproduced play or musical. (Plays that have been given a staged reading or have been workshopped/mounted in student festivals within an academic context are eligible.) If you have any questions about the eligibility of your entry, please contact Executive Director Christopher Stanton at christopher@hftco.ca.

4. First time stage adaptations of other work from another medium are eligible IF AND ONLY IF the playwright has the rights to adapt and present the work for public performance.

5. Plays can be written/performed in any language, however the playwright must provide an English translation for the jury. (The English translation is what the jury will be evaluating.)

6. The playwright/creator/collective may have received funding to create or workshop the submitted work.

7. All plays MUST have a running time of 60 minutes maximum. There is no page limit, but the play MUST fit within a 60-minute slot. (On average, one page takes 1.5 minutes to read aloud. On average, a 60-minute theatrical work is between 35 and 45 pages.)

8. The script must be type-written and uploaded as a PDF file. The file name must be the title of the play. Please include a title page with the work’s title only, without the playwright/creator/collective’s name. Please do not include the playwright/creator/collective’s name or any identifying information on the pages of the script, in footnotes, endnotes, title page, appendices, ‘thank you’s, dedication, etc. Musicals with audio recordings may share a URL to a YouTube / Vimeo / Soundcloud playlist as long as the creators are ANONYMOUS (create an account that has a neutral name, like MyMusicalName, not a pre-existing personal or professional account that indicates the creators or producers) or upload a .zip file that contains all the tracks.

9. Playwrights/creators/collectives who enter the New Play Contest may also enter the Hamilton Fringe Festival lottery. If the first place playwright has also entered the Fringe Festival lottery, their Festival application will be removed from the lottery in advance of the draw and their application fee will be refunded.

10. The first place winner MUST use their 2025 Hamilton Fringe Festival slot to produce the play that was submitted to the contest. If the winner is unable to produce the winning show, the winner forfeits use of the free slot.

11. The non-refundable entry fee ($35) can be paid online by PayPal when completing this application OR submitted by mailed cheque. Payment is due within 5 business days of the online submission date of this form. Cheques must be made payable to Hamilton Festival Theatre Company. Please clearly mark the outside of the envelope with “New Play Contest” and mail the cheque and a printed copy of your application form to 41 King William St, Suite 206, Hamilton ON, L8R 1A2.

12. HFTco staff and Board Members at time of submission are ineligible to participate in this contest.

Past Winners

2024
First Place: GRINGAS by Mercedes Isaza Clunie (Toronto, ON)
Second Place: far-flung peples by Aylin Oyan Salahshoor (Toronto, ON)
Third Place: The Raft by Sierra Haynes; Michelle Avila Navarro; Yorlene Bernido; Lynny Bonin; Filip Fufezan; Sewit Eden Haile; Lucy Jeffery; Philippa Ryder (Toronto, ON)
Honourable Mention: Backpack Beethoven by Devin Bateson (Hamilton, ON)

2023
First Place: Transitions by Ron Davies (Ottawa, ON)
Second Place (tied): Seven Virgins by Ron Fromstein (Toronto, ON)
Third Place: Board Game Night by Joel Pettigrew (Thornhill, ON)

2022
First Place: Samca by Natalia Bushnik & Kathleen Welch (Toronto, ON)
Second Place: Whale Fall by Stephen Near (Hamilton, ON)
Third Place: Recovering by Claud Spadafora (Hamilton, ON)
Honourable Mention: A Pineberry’s Past by Jordan M. Burns (Kitchener, ON)

2021
The 2020 Hamilton Fringe Festival was cancelled due to COVID-19. New Play Contest Winner Steven Elliot Jackson instead presented an alternate work as part of the 2021 festival’s Digital Exclusives series.

2020
First Place: Three Ordinary Men by Steven Elliot Jackson (Toronto, ON)
Second Place: The Fruits That Rot in Our Bellies by Kitoko Mai (Hamilton, ON)
Third Place: Where Do We Begin? (Musical), by Thalia Ranjbar and Jake Schindler (London, ON)

2019
First Place: We All Got Lost by Camille Inston (Dundas, ON)
Second Place: Where The Wind Carries Us (Où Le Vent Nous Portera) by Andrew Lee (Hamilton, ON)
Third Place (tied): INQUEST by Marilo Nuñez (Hamilton, ON)
Third Place (tied): How I Became a Tramp by Vicki Zhang (Toronto, ON)

2018
First Place: Superman and Skinny Dan and Bird Boy by Rex Emerson Jackson (Hamilton, ON)
Second Place: DASHEVSKY AND LEV by Phyllis Heltay (Calgary, AB)
Third Place: The Greatest Minds by Francesca Brugano (Hamilton, ON)

2017
First Place: Subway Extension to the Mariana Trench by Andrew Lee (Hamilton, ON)
Second Place: The Team by Michael Kras (Hamilton, ON)
Third Place: Henry by Ron Fromstein (Toronto, ON)

2016
First Place: Faith by Ben Hayward (Toronto, ON)
Second Place: ‘Tis Some Visitor by Peter Genoway (Toronto, ON)
Third Place: Lullaby Jones by Ron Fromstein (Toronto, ON)

2015
First Place: B & E Basehead by Breen Godfrey (Toronto, ON)
Second Place: Mrs Lansen by Ron Fromstein (Toronto, ON)
Third Place: Oasis Love by Johnny Salib (Toronto, ON)

2014
First Place: Mommy’s Mask by Peter Gruner (Oakville, ON)
Second Place: Bootlegger’s Wife by Victoria Murdoch (Toronto, ON)
Third Place: A Zoo, of Sorts by Ron Fromstein (Toronto, ON)

2013
First Place: Oh God the Drums by Brad J Hart (Toronto, ON)
Second Place: Learning to Swim by Radha Menon (Hamilton, ON)
Third Place: Test by Stephen Near (Hamilton, ON)

2012
First Place: The Drive-Up Counter of the Universe by Lesley Strutt (Ottawa, ON)
Second Place: One by Ron Fromstein (Toronto, ON)
Third Place: Dairy-Free Love by Victoria Murdoch (Toronto, ON)

2011
First Place: Interface by Stephen Near (Hamilton, ON)
Second Place: The Gods and Calvin Brewer by Jessica Anderson (Ottawa, ON)
Third Place: Minced by Peter Gruner (Oakville, ON)

2010
First Place: Dianne and Me by Ron Fromstein (Toronto, ON)
Second Place: Digging by David Finley (Toronto, ON)
Third Place: Tremble by Judith Skoff (New Jersey, USA)

2009
First Place: Love Shack by Michael Wilmot (London, ON)
Second Place: The Whore Of Babylon by Rufus F and C Hickok (Hamilton, ON)
Third Place: Goodnight Amherst by James Fanizza (Toronto, ON)

2008
First Place: Gerald Hilroy’s Guide To The Art Of Seduction by David B. Fraser
Second Place: Without Whom by Robert J Downes
Third Place: Ho Ho Ho by Ron Fromstein (Toronto, ON)

2007
First Place: Balls by Rob Salerno (Toronto, ON)
Second Place: The Big Smoke by Ron Fromstein (Toronto, ON)
Third Place: Perfect Wives, Desperate Lives by Vanesa Burns