On Jan. 19, the Old Town Playhouse and the Minervini Group opened the Northern Michigan Asylum Playwriting Contest, inviting playwrights to submit plays relating to the Traverse City State Hospital until the deadline on Dec. 31. The winner of the contest will see their play workshopped and then produced in 2027 or 2028, according to the contest’s submission guidelines.

 

The Artistic Director of the Old Town Playhouse, Wes Curry, wrote in an email that the success of this contest may pave the way for more contests. “I could see a future where OTP hosts more writing contests focused on other local history!” 

 

Curry says several plays have already been submitted from across the United States. The contest has been posted on several webpages, including NYC playwrights.org. Curry expects more submissions as the deadline comes closer. “...There is lots of time for folks who haven’t started writing yet but have that idea rolling around in their head!”

 

The submission guidelines state that the submissions will be judged by five people: two from the Old Town Playhouse (one of whom will be Curry), two from the Minervini Group, and one outside representative chosen by the Old Town Playhouse.

 

The Traverse City State Hospital was founded in 1881 and ran from 1885 until laws regarding the practices of asylums forced it to wind down operations until closure in 1989. The asylum persisted for over 100 years, and is sure to promise rich material for playwrights to work with for the playwriting competition. 

 

The asylum has a history of tourists from all over coming to visit the scenic grounds, even during its operation, and there are records and accounts of people vacationing on the grounds. This beauty was part of the design philosophy for the asylum, as it was constructed with the principle of “beauty is therapy” in mind. 

 

James Decker Munson, after whom Munson Medical Centers is named, is credited with implementing an idea in the asylum that beauty and work will make a mind healthy. Patients would often work farms or tend livestock, and the architecture of the building followed the Kirkbride Plan. The Kirkbride Plan was established by

 

Thomas Story Kirkbride to be implemented to improve the health of patients in asylums. 

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The Traverse City State Hospital was registered in the Registry of Historic Places in 1978.

 

The Minervini Group is notable for acquiring the Traverse City State Hospital in 2002 and transforming it into what is now known as the Village at Grand Traverse Commons. Curry, who recently moved to Northern Michigan, said that when he visited, he was “overwhelmed with feelings that ‘if these walls could talk, I wonder what stories they would tell.’”

 

This is the first time the Old Town Playhouse has organized a playwriting competition, but it isn’t the first time Traverse City has seen playwriting competitions. The City Opera House has been running a Young Playwrights Festival since 2010. The festival seeks out school-age playwrights to submit a 9-12 page play with four characters or fewer, and picks six finalists among the applicants. The finalists then win $100 and get the opportunity to workshop and produce their winning play in the City Opera House. 

 

There are many local programs dedicated to young writers, such as the Twisted Quills writing group hosted by Traverse Area District Libraries. This group of teenage writers collaborates to create stories and build worlds together. In 2024, they created a magazine consisting of their own stories. Through 2025 and 2026, they’ve been working on creating stories for their new world, spawned from a choose-your-own-adventure project. The program is facilitated by Jacqueline Burke, a former member of the National Writers Series (NWS). 

 

The Traverse Area District Libraries also hold an annual poetry contest called Poets’ Night Out at the beginning of each year for the chance to get published in a chapbook. Winners are also invited to come read their poems at an event later in the year. This year’s reading of the poems will be held on April 26 at Kirkbride Hall in the Village at Traverse City Commons.

 

The head of Teen Services at the Traverse Area District Library, Linda Smith, noted in an interview that the library has had a teen writing group for many years, but also said that this iteration of the writing group is only officially in its fourth year. She praises the versatility of the group, saying, “Even if you’re not ready for the writing, there’s still something to do with worldbuilding.”

 

The National Writers Series, based in Traverse City, also funds several writing programs, such as the middle-grade Battle of the Books. It also organizes year-round classes generally geared toward middle and high schoolers, though most recently they held an adult-only class on writing romance in celebration of Valentine’s Day. NWS is also notable for bringing famous authors to Traverse City to talk about their books. 

 

The North Ed Career Tech Center also hosts its own two-year program called Writers Studio, taught by local poet Teresa Scollon. The program has been running for over a decade now, and students are encouraged to compete in the Young Playwrights Festival.