HENLEY ROSE
PLAYWRIGHT COMPETITION FOR WOMEN
INFORMATION
For current submission guidelines, information, and dates, please visit: henleyrosecompetition.com
The Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women was founded by Yellow Rose Productions, with permission of Beth Henley, to encourage and recognize the new works of female playwrights. The Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women aims to give voice to the stories of this generation and to bring into the spotlight important works that have been crafted.
PREVIOUS WINNERS AND FINALISTS
2022-2023 Winners of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
First Place Award ($1000): Dirty Laundry – Mathilde Dratwa
Second Place Award ($500): WITCH CAMP – J. Thalia Cunningham
Third Place Award ($250): You Too? – Taylor Leigh Lamb
2022-2023 Finalists of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
Breeders – Megan Campisi
Funnie: Or the Lamentable Comedie of Jane the Foole – Jessica Moss
Griswold by Angela J. Davis
littlespace, or the daddy play – Marjorie Muller
Miranda After the Storm, or What Happens to Savage Little Whores – Amanda Zeitler
Paper Chains – Loretta Oleck
Reading Anna K – Fran Zell
Screech Owl – Madison Fiedler
These Moments of Shine – Camille Pavlenko
Waves Waves Waves – Jessica Chipman
2021-2022 Winners of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
First Place Award ($1000): AGATHE – Angela J. Davis
Second Place Award ($500): Buried Phoenix – Laura Leininger-Campbell
Third Place Award ($250): Go for Gold, Audrey Pham – Camille Pavlenko
2021-2022 Finalists of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
A Stupendous Illusion of Reality – Angela Santillo
Buffalo Creek – Stacey Isom Campbell
Clyt: or, The Bathtub Play by Elisabeth Giffin Speckman
Copper Angel – Emily McClain
If Nobody Does Remarkable Things – Emma Gibson
James of Nazareth – Lisa Feriend
My Dinner with Andrea – Susan Lambert Hatem
Songbird – Rachel Luann Strayer
Unimaginable – Jill Remez
Waiting for the Double Lines – Alli Hartley-Kong
2020-2021 Winners of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
First Place Award ($1000.00): The Killing of Kings (part 1) – Nadira Simone
Second Place Award ($500.00): The Docent – Donna Kaz
Third Place Award ($250.00): Midnight Showing – Libby Heily
2020-2021 Finalists of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
Cotton’s Tale – Pauline David-Sax
Agathe – Angela J. Davis
Shiva – Mara Dresner
lisa; a fantasia – Gina Femia
When We Fall – Emma Gibson
Queen of the Goths – Jacqueline Goldfinger
Catch / Release – Elisabeth Giffin Speckman
The Good One – Amy Hanson
Kirk at the San Francisco Airport Hyatt – Krista Knight
The Helpers – Maggie Rader
Anna K. – Deborah Salem Smith
The Principles of Magic – D.L. Siegel
2019-2020 Winners of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
First Place Award ($1000.00): The Buddha’s Wife – Mary Poindexter McLaughlin
Second Place Award ($500.00): Steadfast! – Jane Willis
Third Place Award ($250.00): Leon’s Dictionary – Stephanie Satie
2019-2020 Finalists of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
Abraham’s Daughter – Emma Goldman-Sherman
Familiar Kill – Barbara Lindsay
Judith Shakespeare Has Her Day – Mary Jane Schaefer
Reap The Grove – Caity-Shea Violette
The Curse of the McClures – Kristin Hanratty
The Mourner – Bridgette Portman
The Robertassy – Kathleen Cahill
2018-2019 Winners of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
First Place Award ($1000.00): Rare Books – Jocelyn Meinhardt
Second Place Award ($500.00): Before Lesbians – Elana Gartner
Third Place Award ($250.00): The Captives – Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich
2018-2019 Finalists of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
A Perfect Existence – Lesley Scammell
Go for Gold, Audrey Pham – Camile Pavlenko
Megan and the Bear Go Camping – Zoe Jovanovich
Nothing But The Truth – Eve Lederman
Stripped – Colleen O’Doherty
The Forest – Lia Romeo
The Lost Virginity Tour – Cricket Daniel
The O’Malley Gambit – Kate Monaghan
The Summer Dress – Ellen Wittlinger
Walden – Amy Berryman
2017-2018 Winners of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
First Place Award ($1000.00): Charlotte’s Letters – Jennifer O’Grady
Second Place Award ($500.00): Great White – Deborah Yarchun
Third Place Award ($250.00): Hielo – Dania Ramos
2017-2018 Finalists of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
Around the Snake Turn – Patricia Connelly
Good Bad People – Rachel Lynett
Job Loss Figures – Andrea Clardy
Lady Capulet – Melissa Bell
No One We Know – Deborah Serra
The Day Paul Bunyan Died – Jennifer Brown
The Shadow Child – Myra Slotnick
2016-2017 Winners of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
First Place Award ($1000.00): The Flora and Fauna – Alyson Mead
Second Place Award ($400.00): Moonshine – Liz Appel
Third Place Award ($200.00): Harvested – Donna Kennedy
2016-2017 Finalists of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
Family Pains – Erin Osgood
The Ball – Alexandra Morgan
On The 8’s – Stacey Isom Campbell
The Laws of the Stars – Jenny Marlowe
Olive and Camila – Robin Ellen Brooks
But if the Train Comes to Her – Emily Zemba
The Puppeteer – Desireé York
2015-2016 Winners of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
First Place Award ($1000.00): The Griots – Gwendolyn Rice
Second Place Award ($400.00): Mars to Stay – Alexandra Landers
Third Place Award ($200.00): The Marble Muse – Diane Baia Hale
2015-2016 Finalists of the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women:
Bad Moon Rising – Karen Howes
Boat People – France-Luce Benson
Lineage – Anne Flanagan
Losing Her – Nancy Vitale
Samaritan – Susan Jackson
Somewhere Waiting For You – Kathryn Paulsen
The Flying Machine – Siobhan Gilbert
The Great Divide – Alix Sobler
The Last Nights of Scheherazade – Paula Cizmar
The Second Noble – Brenda Withers
WALLS: A Play for Palestine – Summer Ghasan Awad
Who’s Afraid of David Hare? – Kathryn Graf
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About Beth Henley
Born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1952, Beth Henley is an award winning playwright best known for her writings on women’s issues, family, and small town life in the South. She has seen wide acclaim both on and off Broadway and her plays have been translated into more than ten languages. Her plays include Crimes of the Heart (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play), Ridiculous Fraud (Susan Smith Blackburn Finalist), The Wake of Jamey Foster, The Miss Firecracker Contest, Am I Blue, The Lucky Spot, The Debutante Ball, Abundance, Impossible Marriage, Family Week, andThe Jacksonian. It is a privilege to name the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women in honor of Beth Henley.
Henley Rose History
In 2014, Jay Apking, Damon Boggess (a member of the Actors Equity Association), Danielle Roos and Kerri Koczen (founders of Yellow Rose Productions), gathered in hopes of bringing new theatrical endeavors to the city of Knoxville, TN. One of the ideas that rose to the top, was to create a competition for female playwrights. The idea was inspired by The Minerva Project, a collaboration of female artists that Mr. Apking had helped produce in early 2000. The four began discussing what it would look like to create something similar, but unique, in Knoxville.
Pulitzer-prize winner, Beth Henley, gave her support to the women’s playwriting competition and the group decided that Yellow Rose Productions would spearhead the project. Thus, the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women was born.
Each year, the competition accepts 200 submissions from around the world. A team of readers and judges are assembled to select a small group of finalists and three winners. The winners are announced in January each year. The Competition ends in an annual Staged Reading Series for the First, Second, and Third Place scripts, produced by Yellow Rose Productions, in late Spring. Danielle Roos served as Artistic Director for the competition’s first two years, and Jessie Alexander Gulley assumed the position of Artistic Director in 2017.
Questions?
Feel free to email us and let us know what questions you have regarding the competition!
Partner With Us
If you would like to help out financially or partner with us for the Henley Rose Playwright Competition for Women, contact us at henleyrosecompetition@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you!