Open Call · AAPI playwrights nationwide · Deadline Nov 29Submit → SPOTLIGHT · Launch Cabaret · Oct 29, Busboys & Poets TakomaTickets →

Two ways
to be part of it.

Send us your play for the inaugural AAPI Theater Festival, and join us in October for the cabaret that funds it.

A ghost in a bowler hat and sunglasses. Invisible, but make a scene.
Deadline Nov 29, 2026 · 11:59 PM ET
Nationwide Open Call · Now open
Call for Plays
Inaugural AAPI Theater Festival 2027. Bring your bold, weird, unseen stories.
  • Open to AAPI playwrights across the U.S.
  • Preference for playwrights with DMV ties
  • One-act or full-length plays · staged readings in May 2027
Submit your play → About the festival
Jaemi Theatre Company presents SPOTLIGHT, the official Launch Cabaret. October 29, 2026 at 6:00 pm. Busboys & Poets Takoma. Tickets $25.
Thursday, Oct 29 · 6 PM
Fundraiser · One night only
SPOTLIGHT
The official Launch Cabaret.
  • Busboys & Poets, Takoma, Washington DC
  • Tickets $25 · seating is limited
  • Proceeds fund the festival and fair artist stipends
Reserve your seat → Lineup on Instagram
The festival
Inaugural
May 2027
One evening each week
Five partner theaters
Across the DMV
AAPI Theater Festival 2027

Five weeks of staged readings, artist talks, and community events across the DMV — a citywide celebration of AAPI storytelling in the capital region. Each reading is hosted by a different partner theater for a single evening.

  • Four new plays by AAPI playwrights from across the United States, selected through the open call.
  • One Korean play in English translation. The host country rotates every year, beginning with Korea in 2027.
  • Artist talks and community events that connect audiences, artists, and partner theaters.

Jaemi Theatre Company is the sole organizer. Partner theaters provide the space and basic tech for one evening; Jaemi provides producing staff, front of house volunteers, and marketing for the night.

Host a night

We are looking for Founding Partners to host one evening of the inaugural festival. Dates are flexible and scheduled around your season.

Founding Partner recognition

Your name in the festival program and on this website through 2027, features across our social channels, verbal recognition from the stage, and first invitation to return each year.

jaemitheatre@gmail.com

Open now
Deadline
Nov 29, 2026
11:59 PM Eastern
Open Call for New Plays

Bring your bold, weird, unseen stories. We are looking for work that is still in motion: unfinished drafts, formal risks, and stories that have not found a stage yet.

Format: one-act or full-length plays
Eligibility: playwrights based anywhere in the United States who identify as Asian, Asian American, or Pacific Islander. We do not ask for proof, generation, or degree of connection
Preference: playwrights with DMV ties
Selection: read and scored by a panel, then curated for the festival

Selected writers are compensated at fair artist stipends. Questions go to jaemitheatre@gmail.com.

Submit your play →

Past work
BAAL by Jaemi Theatre Company at the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival. Pregnancy is illegal. Read the digital program → Past
March 6, 2026
Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival
Lab Theatre II
Atlas Performing Arts Center
BAAL

A body horror drama set in a dystopian city where the air is toxic and birth is outlawed. In the city of Baal, citizens are forced into an impossible choice: terminate or sacrifice a family member. The play uses the language of biological mutation and bodily control to examine how systems of power decide who gets to exist and on what terms.

Written by Youri Kim
Directed by Theo Yu
Cast of seven · Original sound design

Our inaugural production opened to a sold out house and closed in the black, with 10 artists compensated at industry standard stipends.

Read the digital program (PDF)