10.03.2025
Open call: Aurora Drama Award 2025
Teatr Polski in Bydgoszcz is now accepting submissions for the international competition for playwrights, AURORA. The Drama Award of the City of Bydgoszcz. This is the fifth edition of the award, organised as part of the Prapremiery Festival.
Competition entries for this year's edition can be submitted until April 28, 2025. In the first stage of the competition, the Jury will select five finalist texts, which will be presented as stage sketches during the second week of the Prapremiery Festival 2025.
AURORA. The Drama Award of the City of Bydgoszcz is awarded for outstanding contemporary drama. The competition is dedicated to playwrights from countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Countries of the AURORA are united above all by a common history, but also by economic and emancipation experience. The commonality of political and social transformations provides an opportunity to develop new languages, narratives and aesthetics, which, in a diverse and complete way, can become an important voice in the construction of the region's identity.
Authors from the following countries are invited to take part in the competition: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
In face of the Russian war against Ukraine that is still going on, the committee of AURORA upholds the decision to exclude all candidates representing the Russian Federation.
Works for the competition can be submitted in one of the four languages: English, Polish, Russian or Ukrainian.
“AURORA. The Drama Award of the City of Bydgoszcz is an initiative brought to life in 2021 by Julia Holewińska and Wojciech Faruga, then directors of the Teatr Polski in Bydgoszcz. When establishing AURORA, its creators aimed to produce an event that would connect playwrights from Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Caucasus. This has allowed our city to become a unique place on the theatrical map of the region, where artists with diverse experiences and backgrounds meet, creating a polyphonic narrative about our shared historical experiences, identity, challenges but also about the differences that divide us. Plays from previous editions of the competition have been published, successfully staged, and awarded in Polish and European theatres.”- says Beniamin M. Bukowski, director of the Teatr Polski in Bydgoszcz.
The organisers of the AURORA aim to create a platform for international theatre artists where they can come together around new dramatic writing and to look for different angles on a contemporary world in texts that force reflection and deepen knowledge of other cultures. In the first stage of the competition the Jury will select five final texts, which will be presented as stage sketches during the Prapremiery Festival 2025.
Ultimately, the Chapter will select the winning text and award the AURORA. The Drama Award of the City of Bydgoszcz in the amount of PLN 50,000.
In previous editions of the competition, the AURORA award went to Romanian playwright Elise Wilk (“disappearing”, 2022), Serbian writer and actor Danilo Brakočević (“Resistance of Tempered Glass”, 2023) and twice to Belarusian author and director Mikita Ilynchyk (“Dark Room”, 2021 and “Say hi to Abdo”, 2024).
The 2025 call for entries runs until 28th of April. The competition regulation, application form and more information are available at www.auroraaward.pl.
In case of any questions do not hesitate to contact us! We will be happy to answer all of your queries! You can also check out our FAQ section on our website: https://www.teatrpolski.pl/faq-aurora.html
Inquires: Secretary of the Award – Małgorzata Maciejewska at aurora (a) teatrpolski.pl