Sabi Arts has opened its inaugural playwriting prize to Nigerian writers at home and abroad, offering ₦1.4 million across three awards. Entries for the Sabi Arts Playwright Prize close on 20 December 2026, with a professional production among the rewards for the winning script.
The annual competition is accepting original full-length plays from Nigerians aged 18 and above. Submissions opened on 1 October, and the company says there is no entry fee.
The grand prize carries ₦1 million, a professional production by Sabi Arts and admission to its next writers’ residency. A runner-up will receive ₦200,000 and residency access, alongside access to the company’s productions.
A further ₦200,000 is attached to the Julie Okoh Prize, which recognises a play by a woman that centres women’s lives and experiences. Its winner will receive a staged reading and residency access. No writer can win more than one award in the same edition.
The company has named Farah Lawal Harris, Kelvin Mary Ndukwe, Rufus Nwoko and Kesiena C. Obue as its inaugural jurors. Their work spans playwriting, production, theatre leadership and performance.
The guidelines require English-language scripts of no more than 75 pages, submitted as PDFs. Other languages may appear with a glossary. Each writer can enter one play; co-authored works and adaptations are excluded.
Once received, an entry cannot be edited, replaced or resubmitted. Manuscripts must be unpublished and unproduced. Identifying details must be removed from the script and filename for anonymous assessment. AI-generated dramatic content is prohibited, although ordinary editing and proofreading tools are allowed.
Submissions go through Moksha and close at 11.59pm West Africa Time. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but writers must withdraw if the play is accepted for publication or production, or receives a major award elsewhere before the results.
Writers retain copyright. The terms require prize winners to grant a three-year exclusive production licence, with production rights reverting if the play is not staged within that period. Winners and shortlisted writers chosen for the anthology grant a perpetual, non-exclusive print and digital publication licence for that collection.
The longlist is scheduled for 31 January 2027, the shortlist for 28 February and the winners for 31 March. Sabi Arts says entrants will be informed of their outcome.
Theatre publication What Kept Me Up reported that the top award includes script development towards a production with Ouida Lagos within 36 months. The Julie Okoh winner’s reading is planned within 12 months, subject to the production calendar.
The same report said six scripts would form a digital anthology: the three winning plays and three further shortlisted works selected by the jury. Entries will pass through successive reading rounds before the final jury chooses the winners.
The prize was established by Ibi Kontein, who founded Sabi Arts in 2018. Her earlier work includes Back For Ground, staged at Lagos’s MUSON Centre, and Dear Applicant, a job-seeking satire presented at Theatre Peckham in London. Her productions have also reached audiences in Ogun, Port Harcourt and Edinburgh.
The company’s official competition website carries the application link and full submission terms.
Photograph: Ibi Kontein, founder and creative director, from the Sabi Arts official team page. Photographer and date not identified. Copyright retained by the rights holder; no open licence asserted.
