BOSTON THEATER MARATHON

A BELOVED NEW ENGLAND TRADITION

Boston Playwrights’ Theatre produces the annual Boston Theater Marathon (BTM), an award-winning, all-day marathon of new 10-minute plays. The plays are chosen from approximately 400 entries from New England playwrights, and the 50 selected plays are produced by 50 New England theatre companies which donate their time and talent to this event. 

Inspired by the iconic Boston Marathon, the BTM is a theater endurance event designed to make connections between local playwrights and local theatres—seeding new collaborations and strengthening existing ones, and encouraging more companies to consider producing new plays by local writers!—and to introduce audiences to the breadth and depth of the Boston playwriting and theatre scene. The yearly event provides a showcase—and a connecting point—for the entire theatre community.

Generously supported over the years by the Boston University Center for the Humanities and by individual donations, the BTM gifts its net proceeds to the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, an organization that helps area theatre artists and companies in crisis.

In 2000, the BTM received a special Elliot Norton Award from the Boston Theatre Critics Association for “Enlivening Local Theatre.” The beloved annual event celebrated its silver anniversary in 2023.

Boston Theater Marathon XXIX will be held on Sunday, June 6, 2027 at the Joan and Edgar Booth Theatre. The script submission window is now closed, but will open on Thursday, October 1. Submission guidelines are below for your reference.

BTM SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Thank you for your interest in submitting to the Boston Theater Marathon XXIX, which will take place on Sunday, June 6, 2027, at the Joan and Edgar Booth Theatre (820 Commonwealth Avenue). The submission form opens on Thursday, October 1 and the deadline for script submissions is Sunday, November 1, 2026. Please read on for eligibility information, guidelines, and how the selection process works.

Eligibility

  • Only New England-area playwrights are eligible. Submissions will be accepted from permanent residents in New England and/or those who have a New England mailing address in the following states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Vermont.

  • All scripts must play under ten minutes.

  • No more than one submission per author. This includes co-authored pieces.

  • There are no restrictions on subject matter, nor on whether or not a play has previously been produced.

  • The play must be the original work of the submitting playwright(s).

  • Minimal sets, props, and costumes suggested.

Formatting

  • Scripts must be ten or fewer pages (not counting title page and character descriptions), typewritten using a 12-point font, with one-inch margins. If your play is more than ten pages long, we will be unable to consider it. (We appreciate plays formatted according to the Dramatists Guild guidelines, though it is not strictly required.)

  • We also accept short musicals; the same ten minute restriction applies. If submitting a musical, please also submit audio file(s) of the score.

  • The playwright’s name should not appear anywhere in the document, including headers, footers, or the file name. This is a blind submission. Please double-check your script for your name before submitting!

  • Put the title on the first page.

  • Please include a brief synopsis (100 words) and a character breakdown (include gender, race, and age only if it suggests a casting requirement). This synopsis is for internal use only and may be edited later for content.

Submission logistics

  • There is no fee to submit your play.

  • All submissions must be uploaded by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2026.

  • Please do not call or e-mail us to check the status of your submission.

  • Notifications will be made in two stages. Notifications about which plays advanced to the final round of readings will be made by the end of the December. Notifications about which plays have been accepted into BTM XXIX will be made in February, 2027.

Optional: you may provide us with a few sentences about the play and/or playwright. Example, “I was inspired to write this play on a hiking trip on the Appalachian trail which I undertook in a moment of transition in my life. So while the arrangement of the text on the page suggests a kind of meditative journey, I also envision it having that feeling of exertion and travel.” OR “As a queer Middle Eastern woman, I’ve always struggled with engrained cultural ideas of what “a perfect family” can/should look like. This play is my attempt to write a comedy about that struggle!” Do not include your name or identifying information detailed enough that it might jeopardize the anonymity of the submission.

Questions?

If you have any questions about these guidelines or the BTM, or if you run into problems submitting a play, please email BPT Managing Director Darren Evans at darrene@bu.edu

BTM SELECTION PROCESS

Submitted plays are read blind (readers will not see playwright names attached to scripts) and go through two rounds of readers. In the first round, a group of readers scores on a simple rubric intended to assess whether the play complies with the above criteria and feels producible as a BTM play. In the second round, a different group of readers scores plays according to how strongly they are compelled by the work and would want to see it produced in the Marathon. First round readers are mostly internal to BPT, including faculty, staff, and graduate students; second round readers are a combination of BPT staff and outside artists. Both rounds will always include BIPOC readers. After play selection, each year’s readers will be published on our website and in the BTM program.

Each year, BPT also extends invitations to a small, rotating group of writers whose work we admire to contribute a play to the marathon. These artists will be designated in the BPT program as “Invited Writers,” and we are delighted to celebrate their work alongside the plays selected through blind submission.

Banner: Audiences enjoy Boston Theater Marathon XXVI (Jake Belcher Photography)