The call is aimed to young playwrights to participate in future productions. Under the initiative of Elisabetta Pozzi, director of the Drama School of the Teatro Nazionale di Genova, "DE GUSTIBUS New Playwriting Under 35" is a program aimed to identifying, promoting, and showcasing contemporary playwrights written by European authors under 35 by the call's closing date.
Authors resident in all EU countries have until December 20, 2025, to submit their works: unpublished texts not yet performed in public, written (or translated) in English or Italian. Each author may submit only one work, which, if performed, has a maximum running time of approximately one hour and thirty minutes. Adaptations, stand-up comedy, revisions, or rewrites of existing texts, and monologues will not be considered.
Applicants can submit their works through email to degustibus@teatronazionalegenova.it by 23:59 (CET time zone) of December 20, 2025, attaching the text and a motivational letter.
The works will be reviewed by a jury appointed by the Management of the Teatro Nazionale di Genova and composed of theater professionals and young people under 35.
The jury will select five finalist works, which will be presented in Genoa's Sala Mercato during the De Gustibus 2026 festival (March 9-24), curated by Elisabetta Pozzi and Daniele D’Angelo. The texts will be adapted and performed as stage readings (mise en lecture) with third-year students from the Teatro Nazionale di Genova's Drama School.
The selected authors under 35 will be hosted in Genoa for the reading and will present their work together with Elisabetta Pozzi in a meeting with the audience.
During the festival, the audience and a jury of experts will vote after each reading to proclaim the winning text "Degustibus 2026," which will open the next edition of the De Gustibus festival.
