Jerome Fellowships for Playwrights

Playwrights’ Center’s Jerome Fellowship supports early career playwrights who demonstrate extraordinary potential, artistic vision, and a commitment to a two-year professional development residency in Minnesota.

Within each two-year cycle, Jerome Fellows are classified as part-time employees of Playwrights’ Center, with a salary of $25,000/year (paid bi-weekly), and are eligible for all employee benefits, including employer-sponsored health insurance. This classification includes expectations of work in support of Playwrights’ Center. Each fellow will satisfy 15 hours of work activities during each year of the fellowship. This may include but is not limited to reading scripts, working front of house for public events, or serving as a teaching assistant for a class. 

Fellows also have $3,000/year available to support customized play development through workshops with professional directors, dramaturgs, and actors.

Beyond the financial support, the fellowship includes working in an individualized and hands-on way with Playwrights’ Center artistic staff—some of the most experienced theater professionals in the country—to develop plays and connect playwrights to producers of new work. This holistic and customized combination of financial support, play development support, and professional connection is career-changing for most playwrights. At the end of the fellowship term, all fellows will become Affiliated Writers of the Playwrights’ Center.

Playwrights’ Center IS currently accepting applications for the Jerome Fellowship.

Eligibility

Applicants must reside in, and have the legal right to work in, the United States during the fellowship term. Applicants may not have had more than two plays fully produced by a  professional theater at the time of the application. Productions that open after the application deadline do not count and co-written or ensemble-created works do not count.

• Playwrights who have not received a Jerome Fellowship in the past are eligible.
• Playwrights who have received one one-year Jerome Fellowship in the past are eligible.
• Playwrights who have received two Jerome Fellowships of any length OR one two-year Jerome Fellowship in the past are not eligible.

Previous Jerome Fellowship recipients must apply with a different play than the one that accompanied their previous successful application. Playwrights who have received other Playwrights’ Center fellowships may apply, provided they still meet the Jerome Fellowship eligibility guidelines. Recipients may not receive any other Playwrights’ Center fellowships during the two-year cycle.

Fellows commit to spending the two-year fellowship period (July 1, 2025-June 30, 2027)  in Minnesota and actively participating in the Center’s programs. Fellows may spend no more than 10 weeks/year (20 weeks over two years) out of town during their residency. Housing in and travel to Minnesota are not provided.

Previous recipients of the Jerome Fellowship include David Adjmi, Aravind Enrique Adyanthaya, Lucas Baisch, Mia Chung, Kristoffer Diaz, Steven Dietz, Cory Hinkle, Naomi Iizuka, Rachel Jendrzejewski, Blossom Johnson, Candrice Jones, Shannon TL Kearns, Kevin Kling, Anna Ouyang Moench, Nubia Monks, Dominic Orlando, Marcie Rendon, TyLie Shider, Dominic Taylor, Keliher Walsh, August Wilson, and William S. YellowRobe Jr.

NOTE: You will need to make a SlideRoom account in order to apply. If you are a Playwrights’ Center member, your login will not automatically log you in to SlideRoom—they are two different systems. If you already have a SlideRoom account, you should be able to access the application using your existing login. For a video tutorial on using SlideRoom, please click here.

An information session about the Jerome Fellowship will be held on Zoom at this link on Wednesday, October 23, 2024 at 12:00pm CT. The recording of last cycle’s information session is available on the right. (Please note that since the posting of the video, our definition of a full-length play has adjusted to a piece running over 45 minutes in performance.)

Questions may be addressed to Artistic Programs Manager Julia Brown at juliab@pwcenter.org or 612-332-7481 ext.1115.