2026 Wilder Playwriting Scholarship at The Educational Theatre Foundation
The Wilder Prize Winner will also receive this copy of Our Town & the Cosmic One-Acts as autographed by the cast of The Long Christmas Dinner Reading and Conversation at Symphony Space in November 2025.
The 2025 Thornton Wilder Award Winner Kolby Hoffman with ETF Board Member Abbie Van Nostrand
We’ve partnered with the Educational Theatre Foundation to reframe the Thornton Wilder Playwriting award as a new national scholarship, recognizing and supporting an outstanding high school dramatist each year.
Beginning this year, the Wilder Scholarship will award a $1,500 college scholarship to a promising young playwright, celebrating exceptional achievement in student playwriting while fostering the next generation of theatrical voices. The prize is an expression of Wilder’s belief that literature is a relay race, and artists should offer inspiration and encouragement to the people who come after them.
"Thornton Wilder adored teaching and turned a classroom into a stage—walking around, adjusting the shades, playing parts. His goal was to draw the best out of his students, imploring them to 'write nothing but what you believe,’" said Thornton Wilder's nephew Tappan Wilder in a statement. "The Wilder Family is proud to continue his legacy—and his challenge—to the playwrights of tomorrow through this award."
“The Thornton Wilder Playwriting Scholarship is a powerful tribute to a writer who believed deeply in the responsibility artists have to one another,” adds EdTA Director Janie Slavens. “We are honored to partner with the Wilder Family to champion young playwrights and ensure their voices are heard, supported, and celebrated.”
The scholarship will be awarded through ETF’s national Thespian program, further expanding opportunities for student artists to develop their craft and pursue higher education in the arts. Applicants must be graduating seniors who received a superior rating in their qualifying Thespy Playwriting competition. Applications will be accepted April 1-30 annually.
ETF is the philanthropic arm of the Educational Theatre Association, an international non-profit that serves as the professional association for theatre educators. EdTA is also the parent organization of the International Thespian Society—an honor society for theatre students that has inducted more than 2.5 million Thespians since 1929. Additionally, EdTA operates the Educational Theatre Foundation, the organization's philanthropic branch dedicated to broadening representation and increasing access.