INSIGHT FOR PLAYWRIGHTS
VOLUME 14 - ISSUE 6; JUNE 2006
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This issue copyright 2006 by Insight for Playwrights except where otherwise noted.
A Craft That Can't Be Taught?
Playwrights Profiles
by SANDRA HOSKING
Name: Rachel Perlmeter
Hometown: Barnesville, Md.
Education: B.S. in Theatre, Northwestern University, 1997; M.A. in Theatre History and Criticism, University of Texas at Austin, 2001
Honors: Theater Communications Group/International Theater Institute Travel Award, 2004; Mabou Mines Suite Artist Residency, 2003; Fulbright Fellowship, Russia, Fall 2001-Spring 2002; Social Sciences Research Council Fellow, Eurasia Program, Summer 2002
Selected titles: Ostentatious Poverty, Moscow Plays, Wanderlust, Neurasthenia
Even though Rachel Perlmeter teaches a playwriting class through the University of Vermont, she isn’t certain the craft can be "taught."
An online description of the play laboratory reads: "This course will tackle the craft of writing for the stage three dimensionally using gesture and movement, space and architecture and a rigorous approach to the poetics of dialogue that envisions the play as a living score."
Explaining, Perlmeter says her writing process utilizes strategies from a wide range of other disciplines.
"In the laboratory we’ve looked at the work of artists like Meredith Monk, Tadeusz Kantor, and been thinking about structure, object, score and choreography to try to frame the theatrical experience as a sensual provocation that operates on multiple levels," she says. "The process is emerging from my own collaborations with architects, filmmakers, composers, and visual artists ... blurring genres I suppose."
She encourages fledgling playwrights to have confidence in their convictions and their "stranger impulses."
Perlmeter says she’s had some extraordinary teachers. "Ruth Fishman, who was my art history teacher in the international baccalaureate program and introduced me to conceptual art; Joyce Morrison, Artistic Director of Maryland Regional Ballet, who I studied and danced with for over a decade; Kim Rubinstein who was my acting teacher at Northwestern and exploded the shorter plays of Samuel Beckett and challenged me to think of the total craft of the artist; Mary Zimmerman, Frank Galati, and others," she says.
Perlmeter’s first serious effort at writing a play was a "renegade adaptation" of J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, which she wrote and directed as an undergraduate at Northwestern University. "But, I’ve been staging stories and writing for as long as I can remember."
In 2001, Perlmeter traveled to Moscow, Russia on a Fulbright Fellowship where she helped established a play-reading series in English.
"The series I curated was dedicated to contemporary American dramatists. We presented works by Richard Foreman, Naomi Wallace, Maria Irene Fornes," she says. "It was an odd constellation of expatriate actors who all happened to be drifting through Moscow at that time. There were Brits, Americans, a Canadian-Austrian actress who had trained in Germany, and for our final offering we brought Ruth Margraff and Nikos Brisco to the Library of Foreign Literature for a workshop production of their proletariat opera, Judges 19: Black Lung Exhaling."
The series was reprised in 2004 when Perlmeter returned to Moscow as a Theatre Communications Group/International Theatre Institute Travel Award recipient. Two of her plays, Neurasthenia and Wanderlust, were read there.
Perlmeter says that Russia has a rich theater scene compared to the U.S. "The performing arts in Russia elicit devotion. On any given evening in Moscow there is a banquet of theatre, opera, dance that overwhelms with its variety. The passion of the audiences, their diversity, and the relevance of the work to ordinary people make the theater feel vital in a way that it rarely does in this country," she says. "Of course, in the post-Soviet era, things are changing rapidly: the state’s support for the arts is not what it once was, the repertory system is fading, and there are a number of burgeoning companies and young writers who are pushing the work in new directions. I think one of the biggest differences is the process — the luxury of time and productions that gestate and evolve over years of rehearsal. The level of rigor and detail that is possible working that way is rarely achieved in this country.
Perlmeter boasts a Russian heritage and minored in Slavic literature at Northwestern where she was "captivated" by Russian philosophy and theorists like Bakhtin and Meyerhold. She studied the language in graduate school but says she still considers herself a beginner.
"I think there is a lot to be learned from the Eastern-European model in respect to both form and content," she says. "And, artists should travel whenever possible."
Correction
In last month’s issue I inadvertently referred to playwright Ry Herman as a "she." He is, in fact, a "he." I deeply regret the error.
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Sandra Hosking's plays have been produced in New York City, Los Angeles, Canada, and elsewhere. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. Please submit comments and story ideas to sandykayz@cs.com.
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This article copyright 2006 by Sandra Hosking. Used by permission.
THEATRES SEEKING NEW WORKS
ART Station
Work that relates to the contemporary Southern
experience or by Southern writers with cast size of 6 or less.
Type of Work: full-length plays adaptations solo pieces
Approach: query w/ synopsis and sample dialogue
Plays/Season: 3-4
New Plays/Season: At least one
Venue: 100+ seats
Run Avg Length: 10-20 performances
Avg Ticket Price: $15-25
Equity Contract: SPT
Cast Limit: 6 performers
Pay: percentage
Percentage paid: 7
Perform New Plays: Yes
Previously Produced: Yes
Best Time: Anytime
Receive Annually: 100+
Response Time: Over a year
New plays produced include: See Rock City ,Bully Pulpit,The
Exact Center of the Universe, Voices of the Season, Last Train to
Nibroc, The Dillsboro Pickle Queen of 1955, Womenfolks, Our Lady of
Perrysburg, Buck Nekkid, The New Old Time Christmas Gathering, Chattahoochee Rising: Come Hell or High Water,Your Mama, Three Drops
of Blood,The Most Wonderful Time,20th Century Songbook, Bubba and the
Three Moons, Sister Calling My Name, The Raindrop Waltz, Blessed
Assurance,From My Grandmother's Grandmother Unto Me, Papa's Angels Adaptations: Bailey White's Mama Makes Up Her Mind, Dicken's A
Christmas Carol Southern Style, Ferrol Sam's Harmony Ain t Easy,
Christmas Gift,Judgment, The Widow's Mite,
Clyde Edgerton's Killer Diller
Jon Goldstein, Literary Manager
P.O. Box 1998
Stone Mountain, GA 30086
www.artstation.org
770-469-1105
770-469-0355 (fax)
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BoarsHead Theater
Type of Work: one-act plays full-length plays musicals children's
plays translations adaptations solo pieces cabaret revue
Approach: query w/ synopsis and sample dialogue agent submission
Plays/Season: 7 or more
New Plays/Season: At least one
Venue: 250+ seats
Run Avg Length: 20-30 performances
Avg Ticket Price: $25-40
Equity Contract: SPT
Cast Limit: 7 performers
Pay: Negotiable Royalty
Perform New Plays: Yes
Previously Produced: Yes
Best Time: Anytime
Receive Annually: 50-100
Response Time: 6 months-1 year
Kristine Thatcher, Artistic Director
425 South Grand Avenue
Lansing, MI 48933
www.boarshead.org
517.484.7800
517.484.2564 (fax)
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InterAct Theatre Company
Contemporary plays with social, political, and
cultural themes.
Type of Work: full-length plays
Approach: query w/ synopsis
Plays/Season: 3-4
New Plays/Season: Half of season
Venue: 100+ seats
Run Avg Length: 20-30 performances
Avg Ticket Price: $15-25
Equity Contract: SPT
Cast Limit: 7 performers
Pay: per-production royalty
Per-production royalty paid: 2000
Perform New Plays: Yes
Previously Produced: Yes
Best Time: Summer
Receive Annually: 250+
Response Time: 3-6 months
Visit our website at www.interacttheatre.org for more on our
history and philosophy, as well as a list of past productions.
Peter Bonilla, Literary Manager
2030 Sansom St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
pbonilla@interacttheatre.org
www.interacttheatre.org
215-568-8077
215-568-8095 (fax)
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New Sounds Theatre
We specialize in music-based works which play with
and redefine the relationship between music and drama. We gravitate
towards abstract "music-theatre" more than traditional book musicals,
and are open to work informed by poetry and dance.
Type of Work: one-act plays full-length plays musicals adaptations
radio plays solo pieces
Approach: query w/ synopsis and sample dialogue E-mail
submission E-mail query audio/video tape
Plays/Season: 1-2
New Plays/Season: At least one
Venue: Varies (no permanent space)
Run Avg Length: 1-5 performances
Avg Ticket Price: $5-10
Cast Limit: No maximum
Pay: Negotiable Royalty
Perform New Plays: Yes
Previously Produced: Yes
Best Time: Anytime
Receive Annually: 20-50
Response Time: 2-3 months
New Sounds Theatre is a New York City-based theatre company
that is dedicated to advancing and redefining the role of original
music in contemporary theatre. Every NST production prominently
features an original musical score by a contemporary songwriter or
composer, which is performed exclusively by live musicians. Whether
it's an experimental rock ballet, an edgy hip-hop opera, or a
Shakespeare classic with cinematic underscoring, each new NST
production sets out to break down the boundaries between music and
theatre in the most innovative ways. And with all of our music played
live, each production is performed with an immediacy that simply can't
be attained with a prerecorded soundtrack.
Our upcoming lineup of shows includes "Jonah Bell," a roots-rock Opera
that transforms the Jonah and the Whale story into an Americana epic;
"Ghostsongs," a campfire-style collection of spooky but emotionally
resonant stories from beyond the grave; and "The Don Giovanni Radio
Hour," a madcap revisiting of Mozart's Opera set in a 1950s radio
variety show.
Russell M. Kaplan, Artistic Director
470 Eastern Parkway #3B
Brooklyn, NY 11225
russell@newsoundstheatre.org
www.newsoundstheatre.org
917-648-3643
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Paragon Theatre
The Trench only develops work from COLORADO
residents/playwrights. Anyone NOT living in the state of Colorado will not be considered for THE TRENCH: A New Play Development Series.
Playwrights outside of Colorado may choose to submit for our mainstage
season, however we have yet to choose one from a playwright outside of
Colorado.
Type of Work: one-act plays full-length plays
Approach: just send a script
Plays/Season: 3-4
New Plays/Season: Sometimes one
Venue: 100+ seats
Run Avg Length: 10-20 performances
Avg Ticket Price: $15-25
Equity Contract: Non-Equity
Cast Limit: 6 performers
Pay: Negotiable Royalty
Perform New Plays: Yes
Previously Produced: No
Deadline: July 31st is our deadline this season
Best Time: Summer
Receive Annually: 20-50
Response Time: 2-3 months
Paragon s TRENCH program is a new works playwriting forum for
Colorado writers. By staying local, we recruit and cultivate the
abundance of talent within our community. We believe that live
performance is a communal experience that begins long before a play is
fully produced. By inviting the greater community to our complimentary
staged readings, we provide a window of understanding from which both
participants and creators of theatre can benefit. Not only do these
readings give the selected playwrights an opportunity to workshop
their original piece, they allow the audience a chance to participate
in a rich, raw process that helps to reveal a compelling, human
experience. Bringing the community into the intermediate creative
process gives the playwright perspective and energizes fellow artists
by celebrating an art form that is best when developed in a collective
spirit. Collaborating on the development of new plays encourages
connection and excitement from those who would develop a lifelong
patronage of live performance. We believe that theatre is an extension
of life-experience. Our world continues to evolve, and so should our
plays.
Barbra Andrews, Trench Coordinator
PO Box 18893
Denver, CO 80218
bandrews@paragontheatre.com
www.paragontheatre.com
303.300.2210
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Silk Road Theatre Project
Silk Road Theatre Project welcomes playwrights of
Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean backgrounds to submit
full-length plays that have not been produced in the Chicago area.
Although we appreciate the fact that many non-Silk Road playwrights
write plays with Silk Road content, often with very compelling and
brilliant results, we do not, at this time, produce their work.
To be considered, a play must be relevant to a people (or peoples) of
the Silk Road and/or their Diaspora community(ies). Furthermore, the
play's protagonist must be of an Asian, Middle Eastern, or
Mediterranean background. We are interested in dramas, comedies, and
musicals. Solo pieces and performance art pieces are also welcome.
Submissions will be considered for either a staged reading or a
production.
Please include a resume with production history when mailing your
script. Scripts will not be returned. No e-mail submissions accepted.
Type of Work: full-length plays translations adaptations solo pieces
Approach: special guidelines Hard Copy of Script with synopsis and
production history (no electronic submissions)
Plays/Season: 3-4
New Plays/Season: Half of season
Venue: 100+ seats
Run Avg Length: 30+ performances
Avg Ticket Price: $15-25
Equity Contract: Non-Equity
Cast Limit: No maximum
Pay: Negotiable Royalty
Perform New Plays: Yes
Previously Produced: Yes
Best Time: Anytime
Receive Annually: 50-100
Response Time: One month or less
Stuart Carden, Literary Manager
The Historic Chicago Temple Building 77 West
Washington Street, Pierce Hall
Chicago, IL 60602
stuart@srtp.org
www.srtp.org
312-857-1234
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Teatro del Pueblo
This year we are looking to produce shows
pertaining to issues surrounding Latino youth and immigrants for our
Political Theatre Festival. We will accept English and Spanish
submissions.
Type of Work: one-act plays adaptations ten-minute plays solo pieces
Approach: just send a script E-mail submission
Plays/Season: Varies
New Plays/Season: At least one
Venue: Varies (no permanent space)
Run Avg Length: 5-10 performances
Avg Ticket Price: $10-15
Equity Contract: Non-Equity
Cast Limit: Less than 5 performers
Pay: Negotiable Royalty
Perform New Plays: Yes
Previously Produced: Yes
Best Time: Summer
Receive Annually: Less than 20
Response Time: 2-3 months
Teatro del Pueblo is a Latino theatre based in St. Paul, MN.
Our mission is to promote cultural pride in the Latino community, to
develop and support Latino talent, to educate the community at large
about Latino culture, and to promote cultural diversity in the arts. Past productions include: Los Vendidos, Manzi: The Adventures of Young
Cesar Chavez, La Posada, Isabel desterrada en Isabel, Casa Matriz, and
many more.
Alberto Justiniano, Artistic Director
209 Page Street West, Suite 208
St. Paul, MN 55107
teatrom@bitstream.net
www.teatrodelpueblo.org
651-224-8806
651-298-5796 (fax)
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The Theatre Expansion
Controversial plays that can easily be adapted or
performed to include dance as another layer to the story.
Type of Work: one-act plays full-length plays translations adaptations
solo pieces
Approach: query w/ synopsis
Plays/Season: Varies
New Plays/Season: At least one
Venue: Varies (no permanent space)
Run Avg Length: 5-10 performances
Avg Ticket Price: $10-15
Equity Contract: Non-Equity
Cast Limit: 7 performers
Pay: Negotiable Royalty
Perform New Plays: Yes
Previously Produced: Yes
Deadline: November 10th
Best Time: Summer
Receive Annually: Less than 20
Response Time: One month or less
the mission of the The Theatre Expansion is to produce
controversial professional productions from different genres, that
unite the theatre and dance communities, by combining an actor's
insightful voice with a dancer's expressive body. We choose work
ranging from contemporary dramas, to dance adaptations to solo
performance artists, where dance plays a part either peripherally or
centrally in unraveling each theatrical story.
Past productions have included "Painted Alice"by William Donnelly "The
Normal Heart" by Larry Kramer as well as being presenters for artists
such as Joan Merwyn, Andary Dance and Fusionworks Dance Company.
Same, Producing Artistic Director
104 Ives St. #4
Providence,, RI 02906
info@theatreexpansion.org
www.theatreexpansion.org
(401) 440-5440
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TheatreWorks
The Bay Area is one of the most diverse communities
in the country. We like plays which explore this diversity.
Type of Work: full-length plays musicals translations adaptations
Approach: query w/ synopsis and sample dialogue
Plays/Season: 7 or more
New Plays/Season: At least one
Venue: Multiple theatres (permanent)
Run Avg Length: 20-30 performances
Avg Ticket Price: $40+
Equity Contract: LORT C
Cast Limit: No maximum
Pay: Negotiable Royalty
Perform New Plays: Yes
Previously Produced: Yes
Deadline: December
Best Time: Anytime
Receive Annually: 250+
Response Time: 3-6 months
We produce many world premiere musicals. We have a thriving
development program which develops both plays and musicals, many of
which have gone onto full production. World Premiere Musicals include: Summer of '42, A Little Princess, and Everything's Ducky (now called Lucky Duck). World Premiere plays produced include: Baby Taj, The Legacy Codes. Plays and musicals developed include: Striking 12;
Mezzulah, 1946; Caraboo; Party Come Here; The Drunken City.
Kent Nicholson, New Works Director
PO Box 50458
Palo Alto, CA 94303
www.theatreworks.org
650-463-1950
650-463-1963 (fax)
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Working Man's Clothes
We have an ongoing rep season of new works in
addition to a number of reciprocal relationships with brother
production companies in the city. Our pan-stylistic approach is unified under one credo: excellence.
Type of Work: one-act plays, full-length plays, musicals,
translations, adaptations, ten-minute plays, solo pieces
Approach: E-mail submission, audio/video tape
Plays/Season: 7 or more
New Plays/Season: All new works
Venue: 99 seats or less
Run Avg Length: 10-20 performances
Avg Ticket Price: $10-15
Equity Contract: Waiver/Showcase
Cast Limit: No maximum
Pay: No payment to writer
Perform New Plays: Yes
Previously Produced: Yes
Deadline: Aug 21
Best Time: Summer
Receive Annually: 20-50
Response Time: 2-3 months
Working Man's Clothes
Authentic, Original Theater
Working Man's Clothes is about putting our nose to the grindstone and
producing quality theatre. We believe in combining the theatre arts
with the spirit of American entrepreneurship. There are many extremely
talented people in this city with no place to showcase their talents.
We are here to give them that place. With no political or social
agenda, we create opportunities for new playwrights, directors,
designers, and actors to roll up their sleeves, dig in, and get to
work producing quality theatre. We believe that theatre can and will
survive by combining community support, building reciprocal working
relationships with other artists, an unwavering commitment to
excellence, and determination.
"Common sense is genius dressed in working man's clothes."
Jared Culverhouse, Executive Director
172 Attorney St. #SO
NY, NY 10002
info@workingmansclothes.com
www.workingmansclothes.com
347-228-1372
CONTESTS
CONTESTS
Acrosstown Repertory Theatre - James Sunwall Prize
Program: Contest
Award: Transportation and housing to attend two staged readings performed in January 2007.
Deadline: July 31, 2006
Type of Work: full-length plays
Subject Restrictions: Full-length comedies only, not related one-acts, with an expected running time of 90 minutes to 2 hours.
Unproduced: Must be unpublished/unproduced
Fee: none
Notification: November 2006
Number of Copies: 1
Please Submit: Full script, typed and securely bound SASE for return if desired SASP for acknowledgement if desired
The Acrosstown Repertory Theatre was founded in 1980 as an African-American theatre by Ajamu Mutima, along with Paula Barco, Janet Middleton, Jerry James, and Stacey Bell. The first production, Wine in the Wilderness, was performed in the summer of 1980 in an abandoned space provided by the City of Gainesville in the downtown Star Garage. Shortly afterward, this small group was joined by others seeking to establish a place for experimental theatre in Gainesville.
In 1986, anticipating eviction, Acrosstown members reorganized their management structure, obtained non-profit status, and searched for a new home. The last play produced at the Star Garage, Fact Wino Meets the Phantom of the Star Garage, was an original political spoof which dramatized the plight of the theatre's eviction during a downtown urban renewal effort. Eventually, the theatre moved to its present home, the Baird Center, with the help of the City of Gainesville.
From our inception, we have been committed to grassroots, multicultural, non-profit, Community Theatre. Using the skills and talents of the local community, we have served as a creative center for playwrights, poets, and performance artists; we strive to include all members of the community. We are proud of our record of producing fine African-American theatre over the years: A Raisin in the Sun, Lovers and Other Strangers, Paul Robeson, Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, Yesterday and Today, A History of Black Gospel Music, Dedan Kimathe is Dead, The Honorable MP, Homeland, Fences, Blues for an Alabama Sky, For Colored Girls, and Two Trains Running--to name just a few. The Acrosstown Repertory Theatre has offered more than 100 plays, from original drama by local playwrights to Shakespeare (in recent years, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet), poetry readings to musical dramas. We have been a home for disparate groups, and over the years have produced ethnic, minority-focused, multicultural, classical, socially and politically significant, and experimental plays including: The Dybbuk, The Normal Heart, Safe Sex, Bent, Tidy Endings, Marat Sade, Galileo, Waiting for Godot, No Exit, Zoo Story, Fact Wino Meets The Moral Majority, True West, and the rock opera Isaac.
Today, the Acrosstown Repertory Theatre continues as a venue for multicultural, alternative, and contemporary theatre. At times when the theatre is dark, high school drama groups, musicians, poets, and other community groups use our stage. We seek to include diverse groups of our area; the only requirement is a desire to learn, and to work for love of theatre.
P.O. Box 12254
Gainesville, FL 32601
info@acrosstown.org
www.acrosstown.org
352-375-1321
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Boca Raton Theatre Guild
Award: n/a
Deadline: October 2, 2006
Type of Work: ten-minute plays
Eligibility Requirements: n/a
Subject Restrictions: limited set, costumes, less than ten actors, no
musicals or music,no excessive profanity
Unproduced: Production in another area okay
Fee: none
Check Payable To: n/a
Notification: selected applicants will be notified in January 2007; no
notification to applicants who are rejected
Number of Copies: 1
Please Submit: Full script, typed and securely bound Don't
include SASE, scripts will NOT be returned
The Boca Raton Theatre Guild Seventh Annual Play
Reading Festival
The BRTG Short Play Festival consists usually of eight ten minute
plays. These will be staged readings so please be aware of limited
sets, props, costuming, etc. No musicals or music.
You may submit up to three plays as long as they are unpublished.
Some previously read or produced works are allowable as long as they
have not been done in the south Florida area within the past two
years. Any genre except X rated. Only one copy needed.
Each play must be stapled or bound, and have the playwright contact
information, a short synopsis and character breakdown.
The deadline for receipt is October 2, 2006.
There is no cash award, but there is also no entry fee. All
submissions must be sent via regular mail. No email submissions. We
are an all volunteer organization so regrettably we do not acknowledge
receipt or return plays. Production will be Apr. 18 & 19, 2007 at 7: 30pm at the Willow Theatre
in Boca Raton. This two-day event is always a sell out, and you have
the opportunity to have your work shown in front of an audience as
well as participating in a feedback during the Q & A following the
performance.
Please send your work to:
Deborah H. Briggs
Production Manager
Seventh Annual Short Play Festival
Boca Raton Theatre Guild
Post Office Box 273595
Boca Raton, FL 33427
Deborah Briggs, Play Reading Festival Coordinator
Post Office Box 273595
Boca Raton, FL 347.3948
for information only: dhbriggs@gmail.com
561.866.4601
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Curtain Players Inc.
Download application form at: http://www.curtainplayers.com
Program: Festival
Award: Selected plays will be presented at our 5th Annual Playwrights
Festival in January 2007. Playwrights will have their plays
workshopped during a rehearsal period in the Fall/Winter and then they
will the opportunity to participate in audience discussions after each
performance at the Festival. The aim of this festival is to help
playwrights workshop new scripts with our actors, directors, and, most
importantly, with our audiences. The Curtain Players Playwrights
Festival gives the playwright a forum to discuss the plays strengths
and weaknesses to aid the playwright in future revisions as plays are
readied for publication and full production.
Playwrights will receive admission to the Festival, join the cast and
crew at an opening night reception following the premiere of their
work, and will join the producers and director for dinner the second
evening before the show.
Deadline: July 1, 2006
Type of Work: one-act plays full-length plays
Eligibility Requirements: If play is selected, playwrights must attend
the performances of their show for a Q & A discussion with the
audience (each show will run for one weekend during the Festival).
Playwrights are welcome to attend the entire festival, but are only
required for the performances of their individual plays.
Subject Restrictions: These plays will be staged with a minimal set
(possibly a shared set with other festival productions), basic props,
costumes, etc.; scripts may be used on-stage.
Just remember that these are festival conditions and the words should
carry the play.
LIMIT of FOUR plays per playwright (in any combination of one-act and
full-length).
Unproduced: Must be unpublished/unproduced
Fee: See Other Requirements
Check Payable To: Curtain Players
Notification: October 2006
Number of Copies: 3
Please Submit: Full script, typed and securely bound No
contact info on script/separate title page with contact info
Application Form Application fee Brief synopsis of play SASE for
return if desired
*** There has been a change in the entry fee this year. For FULL-LENGTH plays: $20 for one, $35 for two, and $45 for three. For ONE-ACT plays: $15 for one, $25 for two, and $30 for three.
If you submit a combination of full-length and one-acts, please base
the entry fee on the number of each accordingly. For example:
submitting one of each would be $35 ($20 + $15). Submitting two
full-lengths and one one-act would be $50 ($35+$15). If you have any
questions, contact CPFest@gmail.com.
The Curtain Players Playwrights Festival was
created by local playwrights at Curtain Players to workshop new
scripts with our actors and directors to be shown in front of an
audience. They wanted to get valuable feedback from a fresh audience
- friends, strangers, young and old - who could tell them what worked
and more importantly, what didn t.
To continue that initial idea, each year the playwrights of the
selected plays join their casts and directors at the end of each
evening to take part in a Q&A discussion with the audience. As our
festival continues to grow, it's becoming a national event. We ve had
playwrights fly in from Chicago, Boston, and as far as Seattle to see
their shows on stage and sit down with our audiences for an honest
take on what they just watched.
Many potential entrants ask why we require the playwrights to attend
their productions (as for some, a weekend trip to Ohio in January can be somewhat costly). To that we answer: while we aim to showcase
fresh works and new talent, the real purpose of the Curtain Players
Playwrights Festival is to give the playwrights a forum to discuss
their plays strengths and weaknesses to aid the playwrights in future
revisions as they prepare these scripts for full productions and
publication.
We invite you to submit your work for consideration in the 5th Annual
Curtain Players Playwrights Festival. For more information, please
visit www.curtainplayers.com or write to us at CPFest@gmail.com.
Lisa Billing, Executive Producer
4836 Valley Forge Drive
Columbus, OH 43229
CPFest@gmail.com
www.curtainplayers.com
614-635-0869
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Global Age Project
Program: Contest
Award: The six plays selected for inclusion into The GAP will receive
staged readings at Aurora Theatre Company during a two to three week
festival produced in the spring of 2007. Invited playwrights will
receive a $1,000 award to be presented at the festival with an
opportunity to be commissioned for production the following season.
Playwrights from outside the Bay Area will receive complimentary
travel to the Bay Area and housing while participating in the festival.
Deadline: September 1, 2006
Eligibility Requirements: The Global Age Project (The GAP) is an
attempt to give playwrights and directors the opportunity to explore
the current and future state of the global community and to create
works that would inspire audiences to do the same.
Subject Restrictions: Aurora Theatre Company requests submissions that
passionately challenge audiences to examine issues and concerns of the
21st century. Writers are encouraged to submit works that explore the
current and future state of the global community and/or examine the
changing state of human relationships in this new century. Works can
be provocative, gentle, fierce or transformational, anything that
addresses an evolving understanding of the world in all its
complexities. The theatre also encourages submissions that think
outside the traditional forms of theatre presentation.
Scripts can be any length but must be unproduced. All styles are
welcome. Subject matter is expected to pertain to an aspect of the
future state of the global community.
Unproduced: Must be unpublished/unproduced
Fee: none
Notification: January 30, 2007
Number of Copies: 1
Submission Address: We're excited to offer online script submission
for the GAP. This process is faster, saves postage and paper costs,
and streamlines the administration of the project. As far as we know,
we're the only theatre company encouraging online play submission
(know of any others? let us know!), but in a festival dedicated to the
future, it seems silly to do it any other way. We can accept your play in a variety of formats: Microsoft Word
(.DOC), Rich Text (.RTF), Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) and plain text (.TXT).
Whatever you use to write your plays, as long as it isn't a pen or a
typewriter you should be able to save it in one of these formats. If
it is a pen or a typewriter...well, maybe this isn't the festival for
you.
If you aren't comfortable using the website, you can e-mail a copy of
the script as an attachment to literary(at)auroratheatre.org. If you
aren't comfortable submitting your script in electronic format (we
promise we won't produce it without telling you), you can mail a hard
copy to: Attn: GAP
Aurora Theatre Company
2081 Addison St.
Berkeley, CA 94704
Please Submit: Full script, typed and securely bound
The GAP is Aurora Theatre Company's annual new
play development program to nurture and explore forward-looking
visions of global import. Potential topics include the environment,
childcare, automation, cloning, life-span, family, currency,
communications, business, politics, spirituality, warfare and
entertainment to name a few. Comedic or serious, experimentation with
innovative forms of theatrical storytelling is also encouraged.
Aurora Theatre Company is a professional theatre
founded in downtown Berkeley in 1992. Operating on an AEA Bay Area
Theatre contract, this award-winning, critically-acclaimed theatre is
considered one of the most prestigious mid-size theatres in the Bay
Area. Located in a beautiful downtown historic building, the theatre s
newly renovated space houses an intimate thrust stage with a seating
capacity at 150.
The GAP is an inspiration of Aurora Theatre Company s Artistic
Director Tom Ross. It seems to me that most of the work currently
being written is reactionary in nature its content is primarily
reflective memory plays, plays that deal with history, biographical
plays, Freudian based narrative. The past is an excellent resource for
material, but what about what s happening in the absolute now? What
about what s going to happen in the future? I believe that for artists
to have a stake in the future, they need to think about it, visualize
it and ultimately reclaim it.
Aurora Theatre
2081 Addison Street
Berkeley, CA 94704
literary@auroratheatre.org
www.auroratheatre.org
510.843.4042
510.843.4026 (fax)
-------June-2006-INSIGHT-FOR-PLAYWRIGHTS-------
ShowOff! Ten Minute Play Competition
Program: Contest
Award: Stipend and production.
Deadline: June 15
Type of Work: ten-minute plays
Subject Restrictions: Submitted plays can be on any subject.
First this is a 10-minute playwriting festival. Plays under 10
minutes or over 10 minutes are rejected. Even if your short scene is
cute or your one-act is good, it doesn't count.
Second the work must have a beginning that grabs your attention, a
middle with some meat and character development, and an ending that
makes sense. It can surprise you, shock you, make you laugh, make you
cry, make you think, but it must have an ending.
Third is everything else! Is the dialog natural for the character
created? Is the character someone an audience can hate, love, believe
... is there some emotion touched? Is it something that an audience
will remember? Something to tell someone else about? In short, is it a
good story!
Fee: $10.00
Check Payable To: Camino Real Playhouse
Notification: End of August
Number of Copies: 1
Please Submit: Full script, typed and securely bound
Application fee SASP for acknowledgement if desired
Full contact information should be on title page.
We do like to have one or two quality dramas along
with a selection of comedies, so consider touching our hearts as well
as our funny bones! We're not able to produce musicals in this venue,
and the audience is principally adults, so plays for children are not
appropriate, but as a community theater we want to appeal to the
largest possible audience, so plays with an excessive amount of @#!X*
words or graphic violence need to have an incredible message ... shock
value although allowed doesn't rank a winning vote with most
audiences. And after all you want to win ... don't you? ... Well don't
you?
Artistic Director
31776 El Camino Real
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
www.caminorealplayhouse.org
-------June-2006-INSIGHT-FOR-PLAYWRIGHTS-------
Stellar Network Plays in Progress
Download application form at: http://www.stellarnetwork.com
Program: Contest
Award: About Plays In Progress
Stellar Network is now accepting script submissions for our Annual
Reading, Plays in Progress. Plays in Progress is an opportunity for
emerging writers to gain exposure among Top Industry Professionals.
This year s winner will have a reading of their work produced by
Stellar Network; cast with professional actors in a NYC theater; and
Directed by Ian Morgan of The New Group.
After the reading, industry leading panelists will analyze the
business, commercial and artistic aspects of the play and discuss the
work s artistic merits, commercial viability, and design issues while
giving advice for what steps the writer can take to further his career
as a playwright.
Last year s Play in Progress, Nicola Behrman s WASPS IN BED featuring
panelist Peter Askin, is going on to a fully produced Off-Broadway
production this fall!
Panelists and Committee Members:
ANDREA CIANNAVEI Literary Manager, LAByrinth Theater Company
LIZ ENGELMAN President, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas
SETH GOLDSTEIN Producer and General Manager, The Splinter Group
IAN MORGAN Associate Artistic Director, The New Group
RALPH SEVUSH Executive Director, The Dramatist s Guild
Deadline: June 19th
Type of Work: full-length plays children's plays
Subject Restrictions: Submission Rules.
1. All scripts must be postmarked by Monday June 19, 2006.
2. All scripts must be drama or comedy; we are not accepting musical
or opera submissions at this time.
3. The playwright s name must not appear anywhere on the script,
including the title page.
4. For multiple script submissions by the same playwright, each script
must be submitted separately.
5. Scripts will not be returned.
6. Plays that have been produced professionally, beyond AEA Showcase
Code, do not qualify
We reserve the right to disqualify any scripts that do not meet these
requirements.
How to submit 1. Complete entry form online at http: //www.stellarnetwork.com/newyork/
2. Entry fees:
- Early deadline (Postmarked by June 9, 2006) - $15.00 for
Stellar Members; $25.00 for Non-Members
- Late deadline (Postmarked after June 9, 2006) - $35.00.
- Checks and cash will not be accepted.
3. Mail submission package including:
- Online entry confirmation receipt
- A one-page information sheet that includes the playwright s
contact information including e-mail, a short biography, a synopsis,
and character descriptions.
- A securely bound copy of the script. Each page should be
numbered and include the title of the play.
4. Mail Submissions to:
Lisa Marie Meller
Stellar Network / Plays in Progress
PO Box 300845
Brooklyn, NY 11230-0845
The selected script will be announced via e-mail in July. The
tentative date for the Plays in Progress Reading is July 31, 2006.
Unproduced: Previous non-Equity productions okay
Fee: varies - see website
Check Payable To: online CC only, receipt of payment
should be included in submission.
Notification: Early July
Number of Copies: 1
Please Submit: Full script, typed and securely bound No
contact info on script/separate title page with contact info
Application Form Application fee Brief synopsis of play Character
breakdown and set requirements Short bio Don't include SASE, scripts
will NOT be returned
ABOUT STELLAR NETWORK:
Stellar Network is a not-for-profit, transatlantic organization for
professionals working within London and New York s film, TV and
theatre industries. Focusing primarily on the needs of those in the
first 10 years of their career, Stellar brings together creative
talent to strengthen and invigorate the creative industries by sharing
resources, contacts and knowledge.
Recently praised by Variety as The most organized and proactive of
networking groups , Stellar Network provides a dynamic schedule of
social and professional events in a friendly and relaxed environment
including screenings, workshops, panel discussions and monthly
get-togethers.
Stellar Board of Advisors:
Alan Rickman, Anthony Minghella, Baz Bamigboye, Ben Younger, Christina
Thomas, Sir David Hare, Diana Williams, Freddie Ross Hancock, Graham
Leader, Jude Law, Jane Wright, Liz Miller, Marc Levin, Peter
Kosminsky, Susan Sarandon, Steve Shainberg, Sue Zilberstein.
Stellar fills a yawning gap in our industry, providing an invaluable
meeting place - a chance for new starters to encounter both their
contemporaries, (to trade horror stories and learn from their
mistakes), and jaded old hands like me, who can try to offer some
advice on how to navigate the chopper waters of the UK film, TV and
theatre worlds. The team running Stellar are enthusiastic, proactive
and innovative, constantly dreaming up new ways for their members to
network and new associations and opportunities which allow the
inexperienced access to industry at levels more normally closed to
them. I would most wholeheartedly endorse Stellar and the wonderful
team who run it to all interested parties - as a fun and increasingly
vital building block in our industry s future.
- Peter Kosminsky
(BAFTA Award-winning Producer and Stellar UK Advisory Board Member)
Lisa Marie Meller, Creative Director
PO Box 300845
Brooklyn, NY 11230
www.stellarnetwork.com
646-314-1701
718-676-5618 (fax)
-------June-2006-INSIGHT-FOR-PLAYWRIGHTS-------
Waldo M. and Grace C. Bonderman Playwriting for Youth
National Competiton and Symposium
Download application form at: http://www.indianarep.com
Program: Contest
Award: Currently offer a week of development, with director,
dramaturg, and cast plus $1,000 prize to 4-5
selected plays/playwrights. Also 10-15 minute directed readings of up
to 6 semi-finalists. All featured
in a national symposium. This takes place in alternate years.
Contest ends in September of even number years;
develpment and symposium in the year following. (This year contest
was in 2004 and Symposium in 2005.)
Alternates with Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices that occurs in
even numbered years.
Deadline: Usually the end of September even #'d years
Type of Work: children's plays
Eligibility Requirements: Please note that by "Children's Plays" we
include plays suitable for youth through high school age. No
eligibility restricitions.
Subject Restrictions: Must be suitable for youth audience/families.
Unproduced: Previous non-Equity productions okay
Fee: None
Notification: late December following submission
Number of Copies: 3
Submission Address: see above
Please Submit: Full script, typed and securely bound, No
contact info on script/separate title page with contact info,
Application Form, Brief synopsis of play, Character breakdown and set
requirements, SASP for acknowledgement if desired, Letter-sized SASE
for notification
none
All scripts are read by two readers selected from
directors and producers throughout the country who provide written
responses. In the event of wide disagreement, scripts are submitted
to third readers. The choices of one descriptor
of the Bonderman is too limiting. We begin with a contest, yes; but
through written responses to each script and to
the development of 4-5 scripts in a week long residency culminating in
a national symposium.
Goal is to support playwrights and plays for young audiences and to
develop the most promising of the scripts submitted.
Dorothy Webb or Janet Allen, Artistic Director
Indiana Repertory Theatre, 140 West Washington St.
Indianapolis, IN 46204=3465
dwebb@iupui.edu
www.indianarepertorytheatre.com
317 635 5277
317 236 0767 (fax)
PLAYS IN SIGHT
our subscribers' success stories
* * * * * * * * *
A TENNESSEE WALK by Rob Anderson will be read as part of the Great
Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. Rob was also selected
to be part of the 2006 Sewanee Writer's Conference.
* * * * * * * * *
Leslie Bramm reports that ISLANDS OF REPAIR and BIG BALL will be
published by JAC Publications. Also THE MEXICAN CLEANING LADY was
accepted into the Samuel French Short Play Festival.
* * * * * * * * *
PIANO by David Hall has received First Prize in the Southern
Playwrights Competition and will be produced at Jacksonville State
University (Alabama) during the 2006-2007 season.
* * * * * * * * *
Keep ‘em coming, folks! And be sure to let us know if you read about the
opportunity in Insight! Best of luck with your submissions this month!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Have your own success story? Share it with us! Send it to congrats@insightforplaywrights.com
What's the NEXT STAGE for your new play?
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Completed revisions after a reading?
Closed a successful first production?
No matter where you are, you'll find the NEXT STAGE for your new play here in Insight for Playwrights...with hundreds of listings for contests, development programs and theaters interested in new work.
Insight for Playwrights
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info@insightforplaywrights.com
Rachel Rubin Ladutke, Editor
Seth Rubin, Publishing / Web
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