Next Fest
Next Exit's signature annual play festival features full productions of brand new plays by playwrights in the Southeast.
Calling Playwrights!
Next Fest 2027 is on the horizon, and we're seeking original, unproduced scripts to bring to the stage.
We launched our annual play festival in 2024 to champion new works by playwrights across the Southeast, pairing bold new scripts with a collaborative team of directors, actors, and designers to bring plays from page to stage. Each year features a new theme, but every festival has a few things in common: enthusiastic audiences, high-energy performances, and a vibrant community of artists and theatre lovers celebrating the discovery of fresh plays.
This year's theme is CROSSROADS.
Our selection committee is drawn to imaginative interpretations of the theme and compelling characters navigating moments of change, choice, transition, or transformation. Whether your story is funny, heartbreaking, mysterious, or unexpected, we're looking for plays that surprise us, move us, and spark conversation.
Review the guidelines below to submit your play. The submission deadline is November 1st 2026.
If you've written a story that takes us on a journey through crossroads—literal or metaphorical—we'd love to read it.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
1. Seeking 10-minute plays. (Submissions must not exceed 12 pages.)
2. Scripts must be new works that have not been previously produced and will not have received a staged performance from now through May 31st 2027. (Scripts that have received workshops and a ‘staged reading’ are eligible.)
3. Set and technical requirements must be feasible. We are not accepting musicals or screenplays for this production.
4. Playwrights must reside in the Southeast United States.
5. Scripts must be written in Standard Submission Format. (See Dramatists Guild.)
6. Scripts must include a character list with character description and a one-paragraph synopsis.
7. Scripts must be submitted in a PDF file. Only electronic submissions will be accepted.
8. There is NO submission reading fee.
9. Only one submission per playwright.
10. Submissions should uniquely connect to the theme, CROSSROADS, through three-dimensional characters who have a compelling conflict that influences their actions.
* Script feedback on unselected plays may be provided by the script selection committee for a modest service fee.
Please send your submissions via the Google Form link by November 1st 2026.