The PBD Young Playwrights 1-Minute Play Contest
APRIL 17, 2024 at 7PM
For grades 6-8. Everyone has a story to tell!
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The mission of PBD’s Young Playwrights 1-Minute Play Contest is to motivate young people to learn about themselves, their individuality and creativity, and inspire creativity by giving students a voice in creating their own unique story. Each play submitted is read and adjudicated by professional theatre practitioners using a carefully constructed rubric. Students progressing to the finals are given constructive suggestions for strengthening and revising their plays, and up to 20 students will have their plays professionally developed and performed onstage at PBD.
Lesson Plans
PBD provides detailed lesson plans with supporting documents with benchmarks that were piloted in district middle schools in 2022. However, educators are not required to use PBD’s lesson plans, and are encouraged to use, adapt or modify any plans that work best for their students.
Lesson Plans
Playwrighting Rubric
Submission Information
Please note that all plays must be submitted by a teacher or school administrator. We do not accept submissions from individual students.
- All plays must be 1-minute plays. We do not accept longer plays
- Plays must be submitted as Word or PDF documents
- Educators submitting multiple plays should organize plays in a folder and submit by email, Google Drive, or Dropbox to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - Please be sure all plays have a separate title page with the following: Title of Play, Author, School, Teacher name, Teacher’s email address and school phone number
- All entries will receive a confirmation after submission. If you do not receive a confirmation, please contact us at 561/514-4042, ext. 123
Winners of the 2024 Young Playwrights 1-Minute Play Contest
Bak Middle School of the Arts
The Breakup That Never Happened by Emma Betancur
Your Royal Majesty by Skye Davis
One Last Moment by Maggie Douglas
Out by Devin Jackson
Morning Mayhem by Daniella Lent
Crista McAuliffe Middle School
Thanatophobia by Zunayra Erisha
The Owl and the Fiends by Colton Shortell
Eagles Landing Middle School
All Aboard by Giulianna Apolinario
Where Is It? by Sarah Esmail
Watson B. Duncan Middle School
The Girlfriend by Christina Bontrager
Shine a Light by Brooke DiTommaso
The Last Black Friday by Berrak Erkuloglu
A Very Social & Definitely Enjoyable Family Reunion by Callahan Fernandez
It’s About Time by Beckett Hess
The Doctor’s Room by Karina Jacobs
He’s Mine by Nyla Matthews
Unexpected by Alexandra Peña
Woodlands Middle School
The O’Clock Stop Shop by Olivia Jada Clitus
The Room by Dresly Pierre
2024 Contest Details:
- The contest is open to all Palm Beach County students in grades 6 – 8
- Play submission deadline: Friday, February 23, 2024 @ 5:00pm
- All plays must be submitted by an educator or school administrator
- Up to 40 finalists will be selected
- Each finalist will be given one week to revise and resubmit their plays
- Up to 20 winners will be chosen by a panel of professional playwrights and theatre practitioners using a carefully constructed rubric.
- Winning plays will be assigned a professional director, and revisions continue throughout the rehearsal process
- Each winner receives a $100 cash prize and a beautiful anthology that includes their play
- Winners announced Tuesday, March 26, 2024
- Performance: Wednesday, April 17 @ 7:00pm
For more information, please see our Frequently Asked Questions