Call for 10-minute plays (Deadline: 12/1)

InspiraTO 10th Play Festival Deadline: Dec. 1st

  1. This year's creative challenge: The urban jungle. Your play must speak to the urban landscape: The drama must address living, working or growing up in the in the city. It can show the consequences of living in the urban landscape or relationships that develop because of it. Please note: Mentioning a street or section of a city is not enough if it doesn't effect the drama or if it doesn't address the issue of what it means to live in an urban environment. If we feel that this play can just as well take place in the country or small town we won't accept it. Use your imagination: be bold, be witty, be creative, and challenge us. The story can be a comedy, a drama, a parody, absurd or anything in between. The big city environment offers a living and breathing entity that we love to hate or hate to love: harmonious, dynamic, complex, antagonistic, ever-changing, growing and dying, offering endless pleasures for some and never-ending suffering for others. A safe heaven? Or a battlefield? The story is yours. 

 2. The play must be a ten-minute play. The contest is open to anyone without geographic or age restrictions. You must submit online. Please fill out the submission form and submit your play by Dec.1, 2014 . There are no fees. Once you submit you will be taken to a page confirming that we have received your submission. You may only submit one play. The cover page should have the title of the play, the playwright's name and the list of characters. The pages should be numbered. The format should be easy to read. We accept previously produced plays (but not plays that have produced in InspiraTO before). The playwright must own the rights to the play up to June 8, 2015 (i.e. the script cannot be owned by a publisher). Any style is acceptable except musicals. We are particularly interested in scripts that aren't afraid to make bold choices: quality writing backed by imaginative staging. Only those playwrights whose plays have been selected will be notified by January 15, 2015. The plays will be selected by a committee from the Toronto theatre community. If selected, your play will be performed in Toronto, Canada from May 28 - June 6, 2015. Between ten to eighteen ten-minute plays will be selected and performed. 1st Prize: $500 CDN. Should your play be selected for inclusion in the festival, you are giving the non-exclusive right to Theatre InspiraTO to produce and perform the play in the 10th Annual InspiraTO Festival in Toronto (Canada's largest ten-minute play festival), in the May/June 2015. The InspiraTO Festival will find the cast, crew and market your play. Authors retain copyright and full ownership of their plays.

3. Tips on writing. The submission must be a play. A ten-minute play is distinct from a sketch, or a skit; it is a compact play, with a beginning, middle and an end. You need a character facing obstacles in pursuit of some specific goal. You need rising action, conflict, and a climactic moment and your play must tell a complete story.