Colt Coeur Open Call for Beacon Commission Proposals (April 2026)
Colt Coeur is thrilled to partner with Shea Theatricals on the Beacon Commission, a new annual opportunity for women and nonbinary playwrights making work that aims to combat the erasure of history. We invite all artists who identify with this open call to submit proposals to be reviewed by Colt Coeur’s Artistic Programming Committee. If selected, artists would receive $8k, with an additional $4k allocated towards development.
At such a pivotal moment in our nation’s history, Colt Coeur maintains a steadfast commitment to telling stories that illuminate and uplift our complex history, rather than burying it under layers of fear, prejudice, and discrimination. In partnership with Shea Theatricals, this initiative will continue over the next four years, building a sustained pipeline for bold, necessary new work.
Colt Coeur and Shea Theatricals support collaboration with a director, actors, and a designer, and provides for a multi-day workshop, which culminates in a public presentation. For more information about the commission’s conception, please click here. While the events that inspired this commission are grave, we encourage artists to propose projects that use humor, irreverence and theatricality to illuminate the individual(s) or event(s) their plays tackle. (For example, check out plays like Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51, Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, Tina Howe’s Pride’s Crossing, or Theresa Rebeck’s Bernhardt/Hamlet.
Our Committee convenes in early May, so please submit proposals by Monday, May 4th at 5pm by email to Colt Coeur at coltcoeur@gmail.com. All proposal submissions will be acknowledged, and we will reach out to finalists in mid-May.
Part A: 1-1.5 Page Proposal
Describe the project for which you are seeking support, including the creative or development work to be done in 2026-2027. (Feel free to share what this piece reminds you of or is wholly different from!)
Provide a statement describing your distinctive vision, stylistic, and thematic qualities to be expressed in the proposed work, as well as your approach to research and development Include specific context about how the proposed project builds on related work in the field.
Describe the work sample’s (see below) relationship to the proposed project, noting any stylistic or technical elements that are directly related to the proposed project. Be sure to articulate why this work sample is being included in the application. If the proposed project represents a new direction or departure from your past work, as demonstrated in the work sample, this should also be discussed.
Identify potential collaborators (directors, dramaturgs, designers, actors) and identify whether or not you are already in communication with these collaborators. (All artists must be NYC-local.)
Share where you are in your process and what your ideal timeline for creating a first and second draft would be.
While Colt Coeur and Shea Theatricals are commissioning these projects - we do not have the capacity to produce every play we commission. Consider your ideal audience/producing partner for this work and articulate any novel approaches to public engagement with regards to the public presentation of the proposed project.
Share why you are interested in collaborating with Colt Coeur specifically, articulating how CoCo’s values, mission, and ethos align with your artistry and practice
Part B: 5 Page/5 Minute Work Sample
Sample can be an excerpt from your proposed project or past work
Your name must not appear anywhere on your materials. Talya and Adrienne will know who you are - but no one else on the committee will know.
Please feel free to reach out to talyab.coco@gmail.com with any questions!
Colt Coeur Mission Statement
Colt Coeur is a Brooklyn-based theatre company founded in 2010. Our original, story-driven, visceral theatre embraces the power of intimate live performance—it pulls you close and doesn’t let go. Our community of artists nurtures and invests in diverse perspectives to produce work that challenges the boundaries between tradition and experimentation. We embrace the ambivalence, terror and exhilaration of our time with theatre that is an antidote to the pervasive cultural illness of loneliness. We explore themes of coming-of-age, individual and collective identity, nostalgia and history, public versus private, love, lust, and loss.
Through our unique collective process, every theatre artist—actor, playwright, designer—takes part in shared invention and collaborative creation; creating heart- and mind-opening audience experiences unlike any other. We nurture the next generation of theatre artists by providing access, education and a professional pipeline, while amplifying voices and perspectives that have historically been sidelined.
About Colt Coeur
Our 41-member ensemble of actors, designers, playwrights, and directors incubates the next generation of theatre artists through the development and production of new plays—which we create from scratch. Over 15 years, Colt Coeur has produced 19 world premieres, two New York premieres, developed over 50 plays, and provided free arts intensives for over 250 students. We pride ourselves on being a laboratory for exploration while also nurturing the work of emerging artists and providing them a launch pad for their visions. Highlights from the past 15 years include Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel, Empathitrax by Ana Nogueira, Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector and most recently, The Surgeon and Her Daughters by Chris Gabo.
Colt Coeur has a tremendous reputation among artists and audiences alike. The company is renowned for its high artistic standards, and artists who work with Colt Coeur have gone on to contribute to and excel in every level of the entertainment industry. Colt Coeur has helped launch the multi-faceted careers of Timothée Chalamet, Ato Essandoh, Betty Gilpin, Steven Levenson, Ana Nogueira, and Joe Tippett, among many others.