TRANS LINEAGE

Celebration Theatre's Trans Lineage program is an annual commitment to developing new stories for the stage that illuminate transgender and gender-expansive narratives across time and cultures.

Entering its fifth year (grown from original project Tales of the Transcestors), the program brings life to new works rooted in trans lineages of past, present, and futures.

We are commissioning three writers of TGNC2S experience to each create a new 20–30 minute one-act play exploring the theme Desire Lines.

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Each Selected Writer Will Receive:

• A $750 commission to develop a new one-act play (~30 min).
• Weekly facilitated Playwrights Lab sessions over 6 weeks (July to August 2026) on Zoom.
• Feedback from fellow Playwright Lab members, dramaturg, and director.
• A fully produced World Premiere production in Los Angeles in December 2026, directed by Nico Pang and produced by Petey Gibson.

We welcome submissions from any location, as long as you can attend our Playwrights Lab sessions on Zoom on Pacific Standard Time (likely weekday evenings).

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2026 Theme: Desire Lines

This year, we are looking for stories that follow the journeys we make toward what we desire. Toward joy, intimacy, connection, and being fully seen. If lineage is a map, desire is the path we carve across it. 

Desire can take many forms: romantic, sexual, communal, ancestral, material, or even contradictory. We are especially drawn to stories where desire creates tension, risk, or transformation. What do you reach for, and what does it take to get there?

We are interested in storytelling that is bold, specific, and liberatory: plays that imagine the pleasures, attractions, fantasies, and futures we deserve, celebrating desire as a physical and emotional force that moves us, shapes us, and connects us. 

Your piece might explore this theme through:

• Gender euphoria and embodiment: the thrill, delight, and power of fully inhabiting your body and identity, the potential complications or costs that may come with it
• Desire and intimacy: (re)claiming connection, trust, and pleasure on your own terms
• Relationships in motion: building, breaking, and remaking bonds across time, identity, or circumstance
• Care and community: the joy, friction, and labor of showing up for one another
• Time, futures, and fantasies: loving across past and future selves, and bringing to life the fantasies and worlds that don’t yet exist

These ideas are meant to spark possibilities, not limit them. We welcome all tones and styles, as long as they center TGNC2S narratives and meaningfully engage with our theme. We’re especially excited by work that explores how transness intersects with one’s culture, heritage, and other identities.

Please note:
👉 This is a commissioning program for new work. Projects with existing scripts or finished drafts will not be considered.
👉 We love musicals, but due to current development capacity, we are only able to accept pitches for plays at this time. 

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The Playwrights Lab & Process 

Selected writers will join a 6-week facilitated Playwrights Lab (July to August) over Zoom to develop their scripts with the production’s dramaturg and director, alongside a cohort of your fellow commissioned peers. The Lab culminates in a table read with actors, followed by time to edit scripts before rehearsals begin.

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The Ensemble & Production 

Our 2026 production will feature an ensemble of 4 actors who will perform all roles across all three one-acts.

• Cast Size: Your piece must require no more than 4 performers.
• Casting: The ensemble will be diverse in race, ethnicity, and gender expression. While we encourage culturally specific stories, please keep in mind that these four actors will be "shared" across all three plays.
• Collaborative Title: In a new twist for 2026, the three selected playwrights will work together at the end of the Lab to choose a collective title for the production.

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How to Apply

1. Script Sample: 10 pages of your best writing (PDF). If you have playwriting samples, we strongly encourage you to submit them. 
2. Resume + Headshot
3. Video Pitch (2 minutes max): Introduce yourself and your vision for a new play exploring our theme, Desire Lines. Don’t worry about production value or editing. We are most interested in getting to know you, your ideas, and why this story feels important to tell now!
   • If video is not feasible, a 2-page maximum written proposal is also acceptable.