The contest starts in October, every year. Two public announcements are made by December for registration of the texts in the contest. Their registration is made according to the first page “motto” system of every text, the same motto being mentioned on a separate, sealed envelope, containing the author’s personal data.
The contest does not accept the registration of already staged plays, dramatizations or plays in one act. Since the title of the contest is “Best Romanian Play of the Year”, it is only possible to register plays (texts) written in Romanian and coming from the Republic of Moldavia, or texts written by Romanian authors who are residents of another country.
When reading the texts, the jury takes into consideration criteria such as the quality o writing, originality of the subject, theatre indexes regarding the possible staging of the play, creativity indexes, the relationship between theatre and society. Following the reading and assessment, the jury decides on a “Final Selection” of plays from which the winner is elected by consensus. The envelopes containing the identification data of the authors of the plays are not opened until the end of the entire selection process. The result is communicated to the press. The jury is asked not to disclose the number of texts registered in the contest, the titles of the plays and the quality of member of the Jury before the publication of the Official UNITER Press Release regarding the results of the Contest.
UNITEXT Publishing House edits and prints the winning play and the award is granted during the UNITER Awards Gala