Call for Plays

The following is a compilation by Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU), a free newsletter with great info for playwrights and anyone interested in the theatre world. To get links/contacts/phone numbers for the submissions below, please visit the TRU website.

NEW! BA-RACK STARS AND MITT WITS - SUBMIT TO POLITICAL PLAY READING The Decision: 2012 Play Festival welcomes submissions! After all the hype, hoopla, and voting, what do we have as a nation and a people? “The Decision” is a short play reading festival about what happens after this heated election but also where we will be or should be after this November election. The plays don’t have to be about politics but should address some aspect of our culture, media, and our relationships with each other. The festival is looking for funny, witty, insightful, dramatic plays of 10 minutes. Imagine where we’ll be in 2012 and beyond in our politics, media, and community. Plays will be evaluated by a small panel of directors and producers. The top plays will be selected for the three-day play reading festival at Three Jewels in the East Village. The festival will take place the weekend of 11/10 - 11/12 (Saturday, Sunday, Monday). They’ll be a talkback after each night that will allow the audience to engage with the writers and directors. Guidelines: Submission deadline is 9/30. Length limit is 10 minutes. Include your name and contact info on the title page along with a list of characters. Send a synopsis of your play in a cover email. Direct submissions to 2012playfestival@gmail.com NEW! AT DENVER PLAYWRITING FESTIVAL, EVERY NIGHT IS LADIES’ NIGHT! Athena Project invites submissions from female playwrights to its Plays in Progress series. Located at The Aurora Fox Theatre in Denver, CO, the series unfolds from 3/15/13 - 3/31/13 as part of a larger arts festival. Four new plays will be selected through a blind submission process and given workshop productions. Among these, one will receive a full production in March of 2014. Scripts accepted from now until midnight on 11/1/12. 

NEW! CONSIDER THE SOURCE! Source Theatre Festival 10-Minute Festival looking for Directors and Playwrights. Each year, Source Festival in D.C. produces 18 new 10-Minute Plays. Scripts are staged by a wide cross section Washington theatre directors, from early career to seasoned veterans. The 18 selected playwrights receive a $100 stipend and 5 performances of their play in Source’s 100-seat black box theatre in DC’s buzzing Mid-City District. Directors will be selected and receive a stipend as well. Deadline to apply: 10/09. The Source Festival is driven by creativity, collaboration and invention. The most successful scripts tell an original story in a fresh distinctive voice. Other requirements are as follows: • Plays may not have been previously produced or published; • Playwrights may submit only one 10-Minute Play; • Plays may be no longer than 10 pages and must be submitted as a PDF; • Playwrights must be based in the United States. We are not currently accepting international submissions. Go to website to submit work. 

NEW! EAT IS HUNGRY FOR FRESH WORK Submit your play or musical to the Emerging Artists Theatre’s ninth annual New Work Series! The series is a three-week developmental festival that provides artists of different disciplines the opportunity to present one night of a “work in progress” with audience feedback. Successful Fringe, NYMF, and Off Broadway shows have come out of this festival. EAT offers the festival free of charge to all participants. However, it does not provide an audience. For the success of your show and the festival, artists are expected to advertise and promote their own show. If you do not think you can adequately provide an audience, please do not apply. The festival is scheduled to run during March 2013 at the TADA! Theater in NYC. All application materials must be postmarked by 10/15/2012.  The four series now accepting submissions are: - One Woman Standing (OWS): a series of one-woman shows in all stages of development. Male or female playwrights may apply. Running time: 5 - 60 minutes. - One Man Talking (OMT): a series of one-man shows in all stages of development. Male or female playwrights may apply. Running Time 5 - 60 minutes. - Well Noted Shorts (WNS): a series of short musicals 15 minutes or less in all stages of development. - Notes From a Page (NFP): a series of full-length ensemble musicals in all stages of development. Open to NYC, NJ, or CT composers/lyricists. Please include a CD and full or partial script with your submission. 

NEW! CASH IN ON OPENINGS IN SHORT-PLAY LAB John Chatterton’s Short Play Lab is back in action for the new season and looking for new scripts! First-time participants are welcome! The rules are easy-peasy: Plays should be 1-10 pages in standard playscript format. That means 12 point font, Times Roman, character names in the middle on their own line, line spaces between speeches and between speeches and stage directions, as well as indented stage directions. Include a title page with contact info as the first page of the script. Submit scripts in Microsoft Word format. The shorter the better; shorter plays get priority. Deadline is 10/5 for performances end of October. Notification will be immediately after submission. Get that script in pronto—the sooner you do, the more time you’ll have to prepare. You produce the play; the SPL provides the theater (at the Roy Arias Studios, 300 West 43rd Street). Productions must be non-union: no showcases please! (And no Equity waivers, either.) Keep production values to a minimum: costumes and hand props are okay. The SPL provides rehearsal cubes, chairs, a table or two, a board op, box office, and venue management. There are no fees. The SPL keeps the door. Tickets are $20. Each playwright and director get to watch their show for free. There are no other comps. Comps are not transferable. There will be a tech rehearsal on the afternoon of 9/22. Be off-book, please! Plays not off-book during tech will be removed from the lineup. Plays get a maximum of either 15 minutes of tech (1-5 pages) or 30 minutes of tech (6-10 pages). Every play gets two performances, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Each play will be part of one of two programs, and each program will be performed twice. THE MOST POPULAR PRODUCTION IN EACH PROGRAM RECEIVES A CASH PRIZE OF $75. Winners are determined by polling patrons. The SPL is a lot of fun and a good way to see your work on its feet in a supportive environment. It's also a great way to see actors and directors at work, so you can recruit people for later productions. Artistic Director Tom Thornton is in charge of all details of reading/curating plays for the Lab. 

NEW! GET YOUR ONE-ACTS OUT TO THE COMMUNITY American Association of Community Theatre (AACT) launches the AACTNewPlayFest. AACT is answering a critical need: developing exciting new plays that our audiences will enjoy. There is no shortage of new works, especially by unpublished playwrights. But how do theatres find the time to read them and cull out the ones their communities will enjoy? This was the challenge presented to AACT by a member playwright a couple of years ago. AACTNewPlayFest will be a national new play festival – that takes place over a two year period. But unlike AACTFest, productions don’t have to travel. Selected theatres will produce the winning scripts in their local communities. AACT will spread the buzz with nation-wide promotion! Call for Scripts: Plays need to be full-length, non-musicals that have never had a full production. Submissions will be accepted 9/1 thru 11/1. No fee for AACT member playwrights; $10 fee for non-members. Only one script per playwright accepted. Click here for Playwright information, submission guidelines, and link to submission form. 

KENTUCKY FESTIVAL SAYS YES TO NEW PLAYS Northern Kentucky University’s Department of Theatre and Dance seeks submissions for the 2013 Y.E.S. Festival of New Plays! Full-length plays and musicals are eligible. Three selected playwrights will each receive a cash prize of $500 and an expense-paid visit to NKU to see their plays in production. The selected plays will receive a full production, and one additional play may receive a staged reading. Selections will be made and winners notified no later than 12/31/12. Submission deadline is 9/30. Material must not have had a previous professional or university production. It is important that selected playwrights be available to visit the festival about a week before opening so that their visit can be arranged to include late rehearsals and the premiere of their play. Festival dates are 4/11/13 - 4/21/13. The visiting dates are at the discretion of the festival. Playwrights and the directors of their plays will participate in one post-show question-and-answer session with the audience. Follow the link provided by NKU Theatre & Dance for full guidelines and an entry form. 

TIME 2 SUBMIT 1 ACTS 4 THEATRE 3 FESTIVAL Theatre Three is now accepting submissions for its 16th Annual Festival of One-Act Plays! The festival will take place in March 2013 at the Ronald F. Peierls Theatre in Port Jefferson, NY. Selected plays will be presented for ten performances. Maximum duration is 40 minutes; no minimum. No adaptations, musicals, children's plays, or previously produced works. Settings should be simple or suggested. Scripts must be postmarked by 9/30. Winners will receive a small stipend. 

ALL THE WORLD’S A PLATFORM IN THIS POLITICAL PLAY CONTEST The Mario Fratti-Fred Newman Political Play Contest 2013 seeks entries! The Castillo Theatre sponsors this contest annually. Now in its sixth year, the competition is intended to encourage the writing of scripts for the stage that engage the political/social/cultural questions affecting the world today and/or historical events and issues that impact on our political/cultural heritage. While Castillo recognizes that in the broadest sense, all theatre is political, the contest is seeking politically progressive plays that look at social and/or economic problems and challenges, explore possibilities of social transformation, reflect the concerns and interests of communities, and/or explore the importance of community. The contest also welcomes scripts that experiment with form and seek new ways of seeing and experiencing theatrical performance. Scripts may be written in any style, set in any historical time, geographic or imaginary location, contain any number of characters, and be of any length. The winner(s) will be publicly announced at the Otto René Castillo Awards for Political Theatre in New York City in May of 2013. The winning script(s) will receive a reading and/or a production at the Castillo Theatre in New York City during the theatre’s 2013 summer season. All submissions must be postmarked by 10/1.