THANK YOU to all of the incredible playwrights who submitted their work for this year’s event. The jury was overwhelmed by the creativity and variety of scripts, and the reading on August 3rd was a packed house of enthusiastic new play lovers.

Selected works for the 2026 event are:

• In This Economy? by James Odin Wade

• Quality of Death by Devan Erno

• Catch and Release by Charlotte Hurdman

• Virgins by Paige Prystupa

• Kind Kids Club by Fran Kimmel

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The 1000 Monkeys Project is an open competition for Calgary and area playwrights to submit a new 10-minute play.

Submitted plays are read by a professional jury of artists, with 5 plays selected for a public staged reading on August 3rd at the Calgary Fringe.

Selected playwrights are paid $150 for their work, along with the chance to see their work read by professional actors in a public reading event.

Submission Guidelines:

• all plays must be 10 minutes in length (approximately 8 to 10 pages). We are looking for complete 10 minute plays and not scenes from other plays.

• submitted plays must be unproduced.

• the plays must be able to be read by a maximum of four actors (if you have more than four characters, you must provide instructions as per the double casting of roles).

• NEW FOR 2026: playwrights can enter a maximum of one play for the competition.

• plays must be received by 11:59pm MT on July 15th, 2026.

• plays must be submitted in PDF format

• plays must be written in 12pt font

• please include a cover letter with contact information and a brief biography.

• DO NOT include your name or any other personal information on the script itself. The selection committee judges the plays blind with no knowledge of who the writer is.

Submissions can be made via email to 1000monkeys@albertaplaywrights.com