Writers from all over the globe are encouraged to submit their plays for the Scranton Scratch Night competition, an opportunity for emerging and under-represented theatre artists to have their work performed next summer. The competition, led by Pinkhouse Productions and Scranton Shakespeare Festival, provides a space for up-and-coming theatre artists to find work and get paid in a pandemic.

The theme this year for submissions is Ghosts—this can be literal or figurative, but horror genre scripts are not encouraged. Writers are asked to send an extract of a full-length play for the first round of submissions with shortlisted candidates asked to send the full script.

Four finalists will then be selected to virtually stage 10 minutes of their work in front of a digital audience in February 2021 as part of a “scratch night.” The short presentations are popular in the U.K. as an opportunity for artists to test out new works. The winning piece from the winter showcase will be performed at the socially distant Summer 2021 Scranton Shakes in Pennsylvania.

The deadline to submit work is December 4 at 5 PM ET (10 PM GMT). Click here to enter the competition. There is a $5 fee to enter the competition, which goes to supporting script readers and resources for feedback.

Scranton Scratch Night is presented by Scranton Shakespeare Festival Founder and Artistic Director Michael Bradshaw Flynn, also a Broadway associate director for The Front Page and It’s Only a Play, along with with producer Lawryn LaCroix of Pink House Productions, Mirrorbox Theatre, consulting producer Jennifer Jones, associate producer Kate Maguire, and literary consultant Kaitlyn Schirard.