The 2025 Banned Books Festival featured plays inspired by So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. Photo by Victoria Hernandez.
The Bishop Arts Theatre Center is calling for submissions from local playwrights for next year’s Banned Books Festival.
The Banned Books Festival is an annual event that features one-act plays based on the ideas, themes, history or issues explored in a specific banned book. This year’s festival will feature work based on Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.
Guidelines include one submission per DFW-area playwright, work must be original and inspired by the themes or specific sections of The Color of Law, plays that are approximately 10 minutes in length with a maximum of four actors, minimal set requirements and a single location within the play is preferred, according to the submission website.
Actor doubling is encouraged and should be clearly marked in the submitted script. Slight flexibility may also be considered with work ideally remaining under 15 minutes. Deadline for submissions emailed to albert@bishopartstheatre.org should be in no later than Dec. 20 at 11:59 p.m.
Six DFW-area playwrights will be selected for the program with a $1,000 commission paid in two installments for playwrights participating in the festival.
The 2027 Banned Books One-Act Festival will run from Feb. 18 through March 7.
