Submission Period
Entries are accepted between March 1 and June 1, annually. Please review the guidelines before filling out and submitting your application. Complete applications should be sent to info@setc.org.
Thank you for everyone who submitted applications. The period for submission has now ended.
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.
2020 Winner
28 Light Years From Now by Rachel Bykowski
A staged reading of 28 Light Years From Now by Rachel Bykowski was held Friday, February 28, 2020 as part of the 71st annual SETC Convention in Louisville, KY. The reading was followed by an in-depth response session and critique.

About the Play
28 Light Years From Now
In 1942, Josie and Fran’s love is tested when Fran reveals she is leaving to help the War effort with the WAAC (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.) Josie, unable to move past her family’s painful history with war, deserts Fran and they never speak again until Josie hears of Fran’s death in the War. 28 years later, Josie receives a letter from Fran’s grown daughter, Isabella, who found an old photo of her recently deceased mother and Josie together. Josie sets off to meet Isabella, leaving her daughter, life, and the present behind to revisit the past one more time as she attempts to fix her broken heart from 28 years ago.
About the Playwright
Rachel Bykowski, a Chicago playwright, writes to explore the many facets of the female identity. Her full-length play, Tight End, has been featured with The National New Play Network (NNPN) in a workshop at the Kennedy Center for the MFA Playwrights’ Festival in 2016, was a top 20 finalist for CulturalDC’s Source Theatre Festival in 2017, and received Honorable Mention for the Jane Chambers 2017 Student Playwriting Award. Her full-length play, Rev, was the runner-up for the 2018 Todd McNerney Playwriting Award, the winner of the 2019 SETC/Stage Rights Ready to Publish Award, and is now available for purchase on Amazon. Rachel’s other plays have been produced and featured in festivals across the United States. Rachel is a playwriting alumna with NNPN and a member of the Dramatists Guild. She received her BFA in playwriting from the Theatre School at DePaul University and her MFA from Ohio University. www.rachelbykowskiplays.com

2020 Respondent
Craig Pospisil
Craig Pospisil is an award-winning playwright and filmmaker. He’s the author of Months on End, Somewhere in Between, The Dunes and Life Is Short, published by DPS. His work has been seen in New York, LA, around the U.S., and in 17 countries, and has been translated into seven languages. His short film January was screened at over a dozen film festivals, including Bahamas, Berkshire, Big Apple, Hollywood Sky and Roma Cinema. He has written more than 60 short plays, including It’s Not You (theAtrainplays), Dissonance (Best American Short Plays 2010–2011), and There’s No Here Here (Best American Short Plays 2014–2015).
Past Winners
Year |
Playwright |
Play Title |
2019 | Mark Cornelld | 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 |