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Theatre, Public Events

2026 A. E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival

For nearly 30 years, the WashU Performing Arts Department has produced the A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Festival in support and development of new student plays.

The annual Festival begins with a university-wide solicitation of original, unproduced plays. Winners are then selected, through an anonymized screening process followed by a two-week workshop in September. During those two weeks, each play is developed with a professional dramaturg, a faculty or guest director, and a student cast. The Festival culminates with a public presentation of the prize-winning plays. Multidisciplinary Black feminist scholar-artist Jordan Ealey will serve as Festival dramaturg in September 2026.

Read more about the works and playwrights here!

All readings take place in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre. Admission is free.

Crooked by Chinonso Anyanwu
Directed by Zachariah Ezer 
The Winger by Frauke Thielecke
Directed by Mariah Richardson
September 19 at 7:30 p.m.

What We Talk About or The Common Room Play by Anna Schwartz
Directed by Deanna Jent
September 20 at 2:00 p.m.