Femme Playwrights!
The Red String Playwrights Cohort
Femme Playwrights, thank you so much for your interest in the CDE Playwright Cohort! We’re excited to bring together a group of playwrights who are ready to explore new ideas, take creative risks, support one another, and hear their work come to life.
By applying for this program, you’re saying yes to an active, collaborative, hands-on experience. If selected, you agree to participate fully in the program and come ready to create, share, listen, and grow.
We will send acceptance notifications on October 15, 2026, in the same year as the applications. Kindly, please do not contact us about your application status.
Applications open September 1, 2026
Submissions for the Playwright Cohort by September 30, 2026
With notifications of acceptance by October 15, 2026
This Program Includes
Events and Workshops
Your play should include no more than four characters. If you are working on a longer piece, CDE will facilitate feedback on up to 10 pages so that every playwright has time and space to be heard. You are welcome to share longer sections with your mini-cohort for additional feedback outside the facilitated sessions; however, CDE will only facilitate feedback on the selected 10 pages.
How Feedback Will Work: During the two online workshop sessions, we’ll use an adapted version of the Liz Lerman Critical Response Process to guide feedback in a thoughtful, constructive, and artist-centered way. More details on this process are available here. This response protocol will be facilitated by either the Program Director or the Assistant.
The eight playwrights will be divided into two mini-cohorts of four. The Program Director will lead one group, and the Assistant will lead the other. Each mini-cohort will stay together through the reading day to support clarity, continuity, and community.
We also encourage you to connect with your cohort outside of formal CDE sessions. Meet for coffee, talk about your work, cheer each other on, and build creative relationships that can continue beyond the program.
Deadlines and Preparation: To keep the process moving smoothly for everyone, please meet all deadlines provided by the Program Director or Assistant. You will also be asked to provide a short synopsis and character breakdown by the requested deadline. These materials will be read aloud before your in-person stand reading on reading day.
Readers, Rehearsals, and Taking Ownership. Each playwright is also expected to read in one another’s plays within their mini-cohort of four on the in-person reading day. This is part of the shared experience: everyone contributes, everyone listens, and everyone helps bring new work into the room. If there are specific readers or actors you would love to hear interpret your work at the culminating in-person reading day, we encourage you to reach out to them. CDE may have some volunteer actors available, but this is your creation, and we strongly recommend inviting readers who excite you and understand the spirit of your piece. If you would like to rehearse with your readers beforehand, you may arrange that online or in person. You may also email scripts to your readers in advance. CDE will not facilitate rehearsals, so please plan directly with your readers if rehearsal time is important to you.
The Final Reading Day. The final reading day is one of the most exciting parts of the Playwright Cohort Program. This is the moment when the work leaves the page and enters the room — when playwrights get to hear the rhythm, energy, humor, tension, and possibility of their new plays in front of a live audience. Audience members will be asked to provide feedback via a scan code and to have casual conversations with the playwrights during the break between the two mini-cohort stand readings.
A stand reading is a simple, focused presentation in which readers perform from scripts placed on music stands. No elaborate production elements are involved; the focus is on the words, the voices, and the shared experience of discovering a new play together.
On reading day, all eight stand readings will take place in person in the main CDE performance space. The day will have a lively “make a play in a day” feel—casual, creative, community-minded, and on schedule—with four plays read in the early afternoon and four in the late afternoon. CDE will have paper copies of each play available for the readers upon arrival. CDE will also provide food and beverages throughout the event, and the program will be free for the public.
We hope you will join us for the full afternoon — not only to celebrate your own work, but to cheer on the full cohort of playwrights. Staying for one another’s readings is an important part of the experience: it builds community, honors everyone’s creative effort, and helps make the day feel like a true celebration of new work.
By applying for this program, you’re saying yes to an active, collaborative, hands-on experience. If selected, you agree to participate fully in the program and come ready to create, share, listen, and grow.
We will send acceptance notifications on October 15, 2026, in the same year as the applications. Kindly, please do not contact us about your application status.
Applications open September 1, 2026
Submissions for the Playwright Cohort by September 30, 2026
With notifications of acceptance by October 15, 2026
This Program Includes
- An initial in-person kick-off meet-and-greet at CDE with all eight playwrights.
- Two online workshopping sessions in small cohorts of four playwrights, with facilitated feedback during each session.
- A final in-person reading day at CDE, where a live audience will hear 10-minute excerpts from each play and have the opportunity to offer feedback.
Events and Workshops
- Kick-Off Event to be held at CDT in November date TBA according cohort schedules. All playwrights expected to attend.
- For the first online workshopping session, you may bring an idea you want to explore, new pages you’ve written, or a piece that is still taking shape. The goal is to begin the process with curiosity, openness, and momentum. Date and time to be determined by your cohort’s availability and your cohort director.
- By the second online workshopping session, each playwright must have 10 pages of a new longer work, or a complete 10-page play, ready to be read aloud at the culminating reading day shortly afterward. Date and time to be determined by your cohort’s availability and your cohort director.
- Sharing Day/Stand Reading of Cohort Work: March 7, 2- 4 p.m. (FREE and open to the public)
Your play should include no more than four characters. If you are working on a longer piece, CDE will facilitate feedback on up to 10 pages so that every playwright has time and space to be heard. You are welcome to share longer sections with your mini-cohort for additional feedback outside the facilitated sessions; however, CDE will only facilitate feedback on the selected 10 pages.
How Feedback Will Work: During the two online workshop sessions, we’ll use an adapted version of the Liz Lerman Critical Response Process to guide feedback in a thoughtful, constructive, and artist-centered way. More details on this process are available here. This response protocol will be facilitated by either the Program Director or the Assistant.
The eight playwrights will be divided into two mini-cohorts of four. The Program Director will lead one group, and the Assistant will lead the other. Each mini-cohort will stay together through the reading day to support clarity, continuity, and community.
We also encourage you to connect with your cohort outside of formal CDE sessions. Meet for coffee, talk about your work, cheer each other on, and build creative relationships that can continue beyond the program.
Deadlines and Preparation: To keep the process moving smoothly for everyone, please meet all deadlines provided by the Program Director or Assistant. You will also be asked to provide a short synopsis and character breakdown by the requested deadline. These materials will be read aloud before your in-person stand reading on reading day.
Readers, Rehearsals, and Taking Ownership. Each playwright is also expected to read in one another’s plays within their mini-cohort of four on the in-person reading day. This is part of the shared experience: everyone contributes, everyone listens, and everyone helps bring new work into the room. If there are specific readers or actors you would love to hear interpret your work at the culminating in-person reading day, we encourage you to reach out to them. CDE may have some volunteer actors available, but this is your creation, and we strongly recommend inviting readers who excite you and understand the spirit of your piece. If you would like to rehearse with your readers beforehand, you may arrange that online or in person. You may also email scripts to your readers in advance. CDE will not facilitate rehearsals, so please plan directly with your readers if rehearsal time is important to you.
The Final Reading Day. The final reading day is one of the most exciting parts of the Playwright Cohort Program. This is the moment when the work leaves the page and enters the room — when playwrights get to hear the rhythm, energy, humor, tension, and possibility of their new plays in front of a live audience. Audience members will be asked to provide feedback via a scan code and to have casual conversations with the playwrights during the break between the two mini-cohort stand readings.
A stand reading is a simple, focused presentation in which readers perform from scripts placed on music stands. No elaborate production elements are involved; the focus is on the words, the voices, and the shared experience of discovering a new play together.
On reading day, all eight stand readings will take place in person in the main CDE performance space. The day will have a lively “make a play in a day” feel—casual, creative, community-minded, and on schedule—with four plays read in the early afternoon and four in the late afternoon. CDE will have paper copies of each play available for the readers upon arrival. CDE will also provide food and beverages throughout the event, and the program will be free for the public.
We hope you will join us for the full afternoon — not only to celebrate your own work, but to cheer on the full cohort of playwrights. Staying for one another’s readings is an important part of the experience: it builds community, honors everyone’s creative effort, and helps make the day feel like a true celebration of new work.
Click to apply for the Cohort
Meet the cohort facilitators...
Led by Timothy David Rey (above) and assisted by Anthony Whittaker (Right) Learn More
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