Marshalltown Community Theatre Playwriting Competition

The Marshalltown Community Theatre announces its fifth annual playwriting competition open to Iowa authors.  The competition begins January 1, 2026, and submissions are due March 1, 2026.  Winning entries will be named in May 2026.  Entries and judging are “blind” as experienced, anonymous judges review and rate scripts which do not contain authors’ identification information.    

The competition is limited to one act plays.  Since the competition began in 2021, the Marshalltown Community Theatre has staged productions of six of the submitted plays and has staged full public readings of five additional plays.    

Three one act plays will each be awarded $50, and winning plays will be submitted to the MCT Board of Directors for possible staged public readings or full productions.

To receive the complete rules for the competition, interested authors should send a note to this address:  mctplayfest@yahoo.com   In the note, simply ask for a copy of the rules.  The email address is monitored regularly, so emails will receive a prompt reply.

To see the past winners, click on the Archive button below and the year to see that year’s winners.