The next generation of the stage will once again be on display during Dowagiac’s annual celebration of the fine arts.

The Emerging Playwright Awards are returning to the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival for the second straight year, with $2,200 worth of prize money up for grabs. Organizers are currently accepting submissions from young playwrights, ages 18-30, for the contest, with the top three entries receiving the opportunity to be read on stage at Beckwith Theatre.

Introduced last year to the May art show, the event is not only an exhibition for fledging stage writers, but of the local theater house, said Festival Secretary Bobby Jo Hartline.

“Not every town has the opportunity to host a community theater,” Hartline said. “This contest is a good way to grow not only its performers, but its patronage as well.”

Winning the top prize last year was University of Michigan student Graham Techler with “Nantucket Sleighride.” The comedic play was well received by audiences during its live-stage reading during the festival, and will make its official Beckwith debut in August, said event organizer and judge Rich Frantz.

“I thought the event went great last year,” Frantz said. “All of the playwrights were very pleased and honored that we did this for them. They were happier about the gesture than the fact we paid them.”

Frantz will again be part of a three-person committee that will narrow down the top ten submissions, before being joined by another two judges who will whittle them down to the best three. Local actors will read these three scripts onstage in April, with the audience input taken into account when the panel chooses the winner.

The winning submission will get one final reading at the theater during the Dogwood Festival itself, on May 10. Even people who had seen the first reading of the play are encouraged to see it again, as the actors grow more into the shoes of their characters the second run through.

“Even though I loved the storyline and plot, I loved to see how animated those characters were on the second reading,” Hartline said.

This year, the top place winner will receive $1,500, courtesy of the Frantz family; second place will receive $500, donated by the Pugh family; and third place will receive $200, given by the Sala family. Also new this year will be the fact that all four readings at Beckwith will be offered free of charge to the public.

Eligible contestants can submit their work, which must be an original, full-length manuscript, either by mail or electronically to the Dogwood Festival offices. Submissions must be entered by next Friday, Jan. 16.

“Here’s the opportunity to show what you’ve got,” Hartline said. “Everyone who goes to the reading is a theater lover. It’s the safest place to unveil your work, and we’ll be excited to see it. And there’s the money.”