The Stanley Drama Award
Applications for the 2026 Stanley Drama Award are now open.
Our esteemed panel of judges will determine the winner and finalists, to be announced in the Spring. Applicants are now welcome to submit their application online. The required reading fee of $32.00 can be paid online. Once the fee has been paid, please email stanleydramaaward@wagner.edu with a pdf copy of your completed application form, your manuscript, and a confirmation of payment for your reading fee. In the case of musicals, please also include digital links to the music. The deadline for submissions is September 1, 2025.Â
2025 Stanley Drama Award Winner Announced
Wagner College Theatre is excited to announce that Nina Kissinger is the winner of the 2025 Stanley Drama Award for her dark comedy, THIS IS GOVERNMENT. Set against the backdrop of a political crisis in the U.S. government, the play follows three interns trapped in a lockdown as they navigate the chaos of political disarray—and confront the question of what power, if any, they truly possess.
The first runner-up is EVERYONE IS DOING FINE by James Odin Wade, and the second runner-up is COCKROACHES by Emma Schillage. The award ceremony will take place at The Players in New York City on Saturday, March 1, 2025, at 6:30 PM. The event will feature a short scene from the winning play, directed by Professor Mickey Tennenbaum and performed by members of the Wagner College Theatre community.
The Stanley Drama Award offers a first place prize of $2000 for an original full-length play, musical, or one-act play sequence that has not been professionally produced or received trade book publication. Writers of musicals are urged to submit music via digital link. We consider only one submission (a single full-length play, musical, or one-act sequence) per playwright. Plays entered previously in the competition may not be resubmitted. Former Stanley Drama Award winners are not eligible to compete. Â
The Stanley Drama Award was established in 1957 by Staten Island philanthropist Alma Guyon Timolat Stanley and endowed through the Stanley-Timolat Foundation to encourage and support aspiring playwrights. The national Stanley Award competition is administered by the Wagner College Theatre program, listed for the last decade among the top five college theater programs in the country in the Princeton Review’s annual Best Colleges Guide. The award carries with it a monetary prize along with the distinction of joining the illustrious list of past Stanley Award winners.
The Stanley Drama Award has a long and distinguished history. Past winners include Terrence McNally’s “This Side of the Door” (aka “Things That Go Bump in the Night”), Lonne Elder III’s “Ceremonies in Dark Old Men,” and Jonathan Larson’s “Rent.” Among those judging for the Stanley Award have been playwrights Edward Albee and Paul Zindel, actresses Geraldine Page and Kim Stanley, and TV producer/pioneer talk-show host David Susskind.
Congratulations to our 2025 Stanley Drama Award Winner
Nina Kissinger for This is Government
NINA KISSINGER - Nina Kissinger (she/her) is a playwright originally from San Francisco and currently based in Brooklyn. Her plays include THIS IS GOVERNMENT (B Street Theatre’s 2024 New Comedies Festival, 2024 Valdez Theatre Conference, Shake Rag Alley’s 2023 Alley Stage Reading Series, 2023 NHSI Theatre Division Reading Series, 2022 Agnes Nixon Playwriting Festival, 2025 ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition Quarterfinalist, 2023 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist, 2023 Ashland New Plays Festival Semi-Finalist, 2023 Morgan-Wixson Theatre New Works Festival Semi-Finalist), THE EXIT INTERVIEW (Soho Playhouse’s 2024 Lighthouse Series, Barons Court Theatre’s 2024 Reboot Festival, T. Schreiber Studio & Theatre’s 2024 Schreiber Shorts Festival, Ghostlight Theatre Ensemble’s 2024 Festival 10, Over Our Head Players’ 2023 Snowdance 10-Minute Comedy Festival, South Street Players’ 13th Annual Tri-State Theatre Festival), I WASN’T PLANNING ON SAYING ANYTHING (The Tank’s 2024 Limefest Summer Festival, Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts’ 2024 Scherbarth Residency), and SORRY WE’RE OPEN (RE/VENUE NYC 2024 Festival @ The Paradise Factory Theatre). She is a member of the 2024-2025 BMI Musical Theatre Bookwriting Workshop, 2024-2025 Purple Light Productions Artist Palette Cohort, and a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied playwriting under Laura Schellhardt and Julie Marie Myatt. WEBSITE: ninakissinger.com
James Odin Wade for Everyone is Doing Fine
Emma Schillage for Cockroaches