Submission Period
Entries are accepted between March 1 and June 1, annually. Please review the guidelines before filling out and submitting your application.
About the Award
SETC’s Charles M. Getchell New Play Contest is dedicated to the discovery, development and publicizing of worthy new plays and playwrights. Submissions are accepted between March 1 and June 1, annually. One winning playwright receives a $1,000 cash award and an all-expense paid trip to the annual SETC Convention, where both a critique and staged reading of the winning play are held. The winning play is also considered for online publication and a feature in Southern Theatre magazine.
2021 Winner
AGATHE by Angela J. Davis
April 6, 1994 marks the assassination of President Juvenal Habyrimana of Rwanda, whose downed plane ignited a raging genocide that would leave 800,000 dead in three months. One of the first victims was Agathe Uwilingiyimana, a university and moderate Hutu, who had, through international peace accords, become the government official next in line for Rwanda’s presidency. Although the genocidaires kept her from that position, her foresight and courage, and the intervention of a charismatic and unconventional African army captain, brought about a miracle: the survival of Agathe’s five young children and Agathe’s spirit, evidenced by Rwanda today having the world’s highest percentage of governing women.
This one-act play mines the force of her bravery and light during a time of unspeakable darkness.
About the Playwright:
Angela J. Davis is the author of The Spanish Prayer Book (The Road Theatre Company, 2019-20 Season; L.A. Times Best Bet), AGATHE (an official selection for the 2020 New American Voices Festival at The Landing Theatre as well as this year’s Getchell’s Award recipient), Clara and Serra and The Talking Bear (commissioned as a radio play by the Antaeus Theatre Company and soon to be presented in visual format by Playhouse Creatures – NYC) and other plays. Named the 2020 Honoree Playwright by PlayFest Santa Barbara, 2020 recipient of the Playhouse Creatures (NYC) J.R. Rodriguez Award, a three-time Eugene O’Neill semi-finalist and one of the top 21 for the Moss Hart and Kitty Carlisle Hart New Play Initiative, her work has been performed and/or is forthcoming at Playhouse on the Square, The Road Theatre Company, Playhouse Creatures, The HRC Showcase Theatre, Chameleon Theatre Circle, The Dayton Playhouse, The Landing Theatre, and elsewhere. Her poetry and prose pieces appear in numerous publications, including a University of Iowa Press anthology, and her playwriting is also forthcoming in the 2021 Smith and Kraus anthology of Best One-Act Plays. She holds degrees from Stanford and UCLA and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, PEN America, and the Antaeus Theatre Company Playwrights Lab. More about Angela at angelajdavis.com.
Past Winners
Year |
Playwright |
Play Title |
| 2021 | Angela J. Davis | AGATHE |
| 2020 | Rachel Bykowski | 28 Light Years From Now |
| 2019 | Mark Cornell | The Other Half |
| 2018 | Sean Michael McCord | Moving |
| 2017 | W.L. Newkirk | Miss |
| 2016 | Ben Gierhart | Another Man’s Treasure |
| 2015 | Will Coleman | Helvetica |
| 2014 | Robert Plowman | The Missing Link |
| 2012 | Beth Kander | Scrambled |
| 2011 | Eddie Zipperer | Nicolas the Worm |
| 2010 | Alice Shen | Entitled |
| 2009 | Tommy Trull | Honeyboy |
| 2008 | Richard Aellen | Nobody |
| 2007 | Don LaPlant | Two Body Problems |
| 2006 | Dennis Schebetta | Obscura |
| 2005 | Scott Lahaie | Dogfall |
| 2004 | Lew Holton | Portal |
| 2003 | David Blakely | Tales of Shoogilly |
| 2002 | William Hayes | Going South with Phil and Margaret |
| 2001 | Alison Pruitt | The Trial of Susan B. Anthony |
| 2000 | Linda Nell Cooper | April Morning |
| 1999 | Steve Downs | Glossolalia |
| 1998 | Sheryle Criswell | …Where Late the Sweet Birds Sing |
| 1997 | David Davis | Five Exits |
| 1996 (Tie) | Kenneth Robins | Atomic Field |
| 1996 (Tie) | Thomas W. Stephens | Miserere, Passing Through |
| 1995 | Jason Milligan | Walking on the Moon |
| 1994 | Bob King | Dry Thunder |
| 1993 | Jett Parsley | Locked Doors and Lightning Bugs |
| 1992 | Richard Zinober | The House at the Edge of the World |
| 1991 | Adam Kraar | A Twist of Faith |
| 1990 | Andrew Young | Sanctuary |
| 1989 | Bernard Sabath | Father and Daughter |
| 1988 | Jan Henson Dow & Robert Shroeder | The Golden Dawn |
| 1987 | Eddie DeSantis | American Subway |
| 1986 | Bobbi Evors | Another Dimension |
| 1985 | Beverly Shatto | Song of the parakeet |
| 1984 | Pat Kaufman | Cookie Jar |
