Festival Of Shorts

Congratulations to the 2026 Playwright Finalists & Winners!

ACT I

Poll Tax for Sista Blu by Clarence Holmes, Jr. (WINNER! 3rd Place Judges’ Award)

Hello by Dana Leslie Goldstein (WINNER! 2nd Place Judges’ Award)

Goats of Olympus Mons by Evan Baughfman

True Ties by Sheila Strehle

ACT II

First Time by Dana Schwartz

Waiting On Mom, Who Already Left by John Busser

Two Nights at Casey’s by Jay D Cross (WINNER! 1st Place Judges’ Award & Overall Audience Favorite!)

Erstwhile by Jacquelyn Priskorn

Edmonds Driftwood Players is a volunteer-based nonprofit community theatre based in Edmonds, WA that has been entertaining and educating the community since 1958, making EDP one of the oldest continually operating community theatres in Washington State.

We are pleased to be celebrating our 15th Annual Festival of Shorts, our annual playwriting festival which provides an opportunity for playwrights to have their works brought to life on stage, as well as gain recognition and potential awards. The Festival this year was presented in five performances June 25-28, 2026, featuring eight shorts finalists that included eight directors and eight casts. The theme for 2026 was “MILESTONES: markers in time of significant achievements or events” that included both comedic and dramatic stories.

The finalists were selected from 300 script submissions from around the world. Our volunteer readers and judges are local Seattle-area theatre lovers and playwrights. To keep the process as fair as possible, our readers were only given blind copies of script submissions for judging. See submission guidelines below. After the closing performance, the winners were announced for: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Judges’ Awards and Overall Audience Favorite.

2026 SCRIPT GUIDELINES:

• NEW THIS YEAR: We will only be accepting a total of 300 script submissions and only 1 script per playwright.
• Original script that has not been previously produced and will not be produced before June 29, 2026 (a staged or feedback reading is acceptable).
• 10-12 minutes run time (approximately 1 min./page, adjusting for longer monologues, etc.)
• Minimum of 2 characters – maximum of 5 characters
• Be sure to incorporate the theme of “MILESTONES” into your story. The term “MILESTONE” does not been to be included in the title or words of the script, but the relation to the theme must be very clear to our audiences.
• Can be staged with minimal sets, props, and costumes but storyline can still be followed.
• Limited foul language.
• Your original short submission should be in Standard Stage Play Format (for an example, please click HERE) with the script and title of the play ONLY. No identifying information about the playwright is to appear in this “blind” copy. All plays which fail to submit a blind copy of their play will be disqualified. The blind copy of the script preserves anonymity in our reader selections to keep the process as fair for playwrights as possible.
  • You can only upload a single script file and it must be in PDF format, not exceeding 10mb. 
  • Please name your document with just the title of your script (ex: This Is My Script Title.pdf)

Thank you to local Edmonds business The Branding Iron for sponsoring EDP’s 15th Annual Festival of Shorts!

If you would like to receive notifications regarding future submissions, click on the blue button below to sign up for playwright announcements.

THANK YOU TO OUR SEASON SPONSORS