The Cunningham Commission for Youth Theatre is an annual award geared toward generating new plays for families and young audiences. Each commission begins the process of developing a play for production by The Theatre School’s award-winning Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences children’s theatre.

The commission honors the memory of the Rev. Donald Cunningham, a Chicago priest, playwright and lover of the theatre. Funded by an endowment gift from the Cunningham family in 1991, the program seeks to recognize and encourage the writing of dramatic works for young audiences that affirm the centrality of religion, broadly defined, and the human quest for meaning, truth and community.

The commission encourages Chicago-area playwrights to write for an audience they may not previously have considered and offers the potential for a fully realized production of the new play. Students at The Theatre School, in turn, get the opportunity to collaborate with a professional playwright on a new work.

The Cunningham Commission program is partially inspired by the work of Charlotte B. Chorpenning, who headed the Goodman Children’s Theatre (now Chicago Playworks) from 1931 to 1955. During her lifetime, Chorpenning wrote at least 55 plays, virtually doubling the mid-century repertoire of American children’s plays at a time when few professional playwrights wrote for young audiences. Her work is still considered a landmark in children’s theatre, and The Theatre School expects the plays developed through the Cunningham Commission to be just as influential, especially as the importance and prominence of theatre for youth rises across the nation.

If you are interested in applying for the Cunningham Commission, please follow our Submission Guidelines.

The deadline for submissions is annually by December 1. Please note that entry in this contest is limited to writers who live in the Chicago area, defined as within 100 miles of the Loop.

The Cunningham Committee charged with awarding the commission is chaired by John Culbert, dean of the Theatre School, and includes representatives of the Cunningham family, the head of the Playwriting Program, the head of the Dramaturgy Program, the Artistic Director of Chicago Playworks, at least one faculty member interested in pursuing the possible production of a completed script and others as appointed by Dean Culbert.

SPECIAL NOTE: Between 1991–2001, this commission was known as the Cunningham Prize for Playwriting and was geared toward honoring a single playwright for an existing script. The prize was a cash award in the amount of $5,000. In 2001, the guidelines were re-structured to create the Cunningham Commission for Youth Theatre. The Cunningham Prize is no longer an active contest.

For more information about the Cunningham Commission, contact Anna Ables, Director of Marketing/Public Relations, 773.325.7938.