High School Playwriting Fellowship
The Lucille Lortel Theatre’s NYC Public High School Playwriting Fellowship supports aspiring young playwrights in developing original plays through mentorship, workshops, and a professional staged reading. The program is run by artistic director Kimille Howard and teaching artist Azure D. Osborne-Lee.
Meet the 2026 Fellows!
About the Fellowship
The Lucille Lortel Theatre’s NYC Public High School Playwriting Fellowship will support diverse young writers and create an awareness of playwriting as a career. The opportunities provided by this program will encourage NYC public high school students to become the next generation of playwrights.
Up to seven Fellows will be selected from each of the five NYC boroughs and District 75 and District 79 schools.
Fellows Receive:
• Mentoring from theatre professionals
• $500 Honorarium
• Dinner and broadway tickets
• Presentation of play
• Publication of play
SUBMISSIONS CLOSED
Get inspired!
Highlights From The Fellowship Plays
Meet the Artistic Director
Kimille Howard is a director, deviser, writer and filmmaker. She’s an Assistant Stage Director at the Metropolitan Opera, Artistic Director of the Lucille Lortel Theatre’s NYC Public High School Playwriting Fellowship, and a founder of the Black Diaspora Theatre Collective. Recent directing credits: The 2024 New Works Collective (Opera Theatre of St. Louis), Sanctuary Road (Virginia Opera), The Oscar Micheaux Project (NAMT Fest), Treemonisha (Opera Theatre of St. Louis), The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson (Glimmerglass/Washington National Opera, Opera Carolina), Songs in Flight (Sparks and Wiry Cries/Met Live), The Italian Girl (Tulsa Opera), American Apollo (DMMO), B.R.O.K.E.N Code B.I.R.D Switching (Berkshire Theatre Group), Quamino’s Map (Chicago Opera Theater). Her work has also been seen at Playwrights’ Horizons, 59E59, Wolf Trap Opera, Cherry Lane Theatre, among others. Broadway: Ain’t Too Proud (Assistant Director) Met Opera: Champion, Die Zauberflöte, Porgy And Bess, Tosca (Assistant Stage Director). Recent Fellowships: NYTW 2050 Fellowship, MTC Jonathan Alper Directing Fellowship, New York Stage and Film’s inaugural NYSAF NEXUS project. She is a recipient of OPERA America’s 2023 Robert L. B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize.
Photo Credit: Bronwen Sharp
Meet the Teaching Artist
Azure D. Osborne-Lee (he/they) is a multi-award-winning Black queer & trans theatre maker and screenwriter from south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Azure is a part-time Lecturer at the School of Drama at The New School. They are a PhD Candidate in Archiving for Disability Dance & Access Aesthetics (2029) at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and hold a Certificate in Screenwriting (2025) from The New School, an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice (2011) from Royal Central School of Speech & Drama as well as an MA in Women’s & Gender Studies (2008) and a BA in English & Spanish from The University of Texas at Austin (2005).
This program was supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
*TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY; FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF RULES CLICK HERE.