Playwriting



Greetings Playwrights and Playwriting teachers!

Hope you’re all writing and getting ready to submit your plays to KCACTF.  This is another exciting year for playwrights because of all of the new opportunities for our student and faculty playwrights.  I am including a Playwriting Cheat Sheet on the website so that you can better understand all of the playwriting opportunities for students and faculty.  I’ll also include a description of the newly created David L. Shelton full-length student play project and our short play competition, which are exclusively Region IV creations.

The deadline for all submissions to the Regional Playwriting chair is November 1.  I must have your plays, submitted electronically, by that date.  We have very little turn-around time to send them to another region for blind readings and get them back by our late November deadline.

After the blind readings I will contact you to let you know if your play has been chosen to be read at the Regional Festival at Clemson University.  We will be choosing 6 short plays and 6 ten-minute plays to come to the festival.  Student directors who are assisted by a faculty mentor will direct these plays.  You no longer have to bring a staged reading of your short play to the Regional Festival.  We will carefully choose and train student directors and give them rehearsal space, actors, dramaturges and reading schedules during the first day of the festival.  To be able to be one of the two finalists in the Regional short play competition you will need to make sure your school can bring a fully staged production back to the festival for performance next year.  This does not mean that you can’t be entered in the national short play competition.  All of the short plays submitted will be read for this competition but let me know if your school is unable to mount a production to bring back to festival in 09 – it will not effect the outcome of your Cauble entry. The 6 that are read at the festival and the two chosen for production for next year are a regional competition only. 

So remember – submit your plays electronically by November 1 to danderso@mtsu.edu.  Please include two cover sheets – one with all of the necessary information, i.e., name, name of play, school, email address, etc., and one with just the name of the play.  This is essential for the blind reading!  Look at the Regional website address here, and please go to the Kennedy Center website for the different playwriting competitions – look for the new competitions and for the script format page.

Also, please email me or call me for any further information.  Deborah Anderson 615 898-2276, danderso@mtsu.edu. 

Take care and submit those plays.

Write on!!!!
Deborah Anderson
NPP Chair, Region IV

This is the Playwriting Cheat Sheet, which should be helpful for teachers and students to decide which competitions to enter. To download a copy of this information in PDF format, please click here.

FOR PARTICIPATING PRODUCTIONS ONLY
If it’s student written, and it’s a full length, and it was entered as a participating production and brought to your regional festival, it is eligible for the National Student Playwriting Award.

PLEASE NOTE:  COPIES OF TEN-MINUTE PLAYS, JOHN CAUBLE SHORT PLAYS, AND DAVID MARK COHEN PLAYWRITING AWARD ENTRIES MUST BE SENT TO YOUR REGIONAL CHAIR BY NOVEMBER 1.

If it’s student written, and it’s a short play, and was (1) produced at least as a staged reading and entered as an associate or participating production and then (2) invited to your regional festival, it is eligible for the John Cauble Short Play Award, it must be sent to your regional chair by November 1.

If it’s student written, and it’s comic or has comic elements to it, it is eligible for the Mark Twain Comedy Award and should be sent directly to the KC for consideration by December 1.

If it’s student written by a person of African heritage, and it deals with the African experience here or abroad, it is eligible for the Lorraine Hansberry Award.  Can be sent directly to the KC for consideration by December 1.

If it’s student written, and it deals with the human experience of living with a disability, it is eligible for the Jean Kennedy Smith Award.  Can be sent directly to the KC for consideration by December 1.

If it’s student written, and it’s written on a theme that will appeal to young people, K-12th grades, it is eligible for the KC Youth And Families Playwriting Award. Can be sent directly to the KC for consideration by December 1.

If it’s student written, and celebrates diversity and encourages tolerance while exploring issues of disempowered voices not traditionally considered mainstream, it is eligible for the Paula Vogel Award.
Can be sent directly to the KC for consideration by December 1.

If it’s student written by a person of Latino heritage, it is eligible for the Latino  Playwriting Award. Can be sent directly to the KC for consideration by December 1.

An award given every other year, if it’s student written, and recognizes that science and scientists are a part of culture, it is eligible for the KCACTF National Science Playwriting Award. Can be sent directly to the KC for consideration by December 1.

If it’s student written, and illuminates the complicated issues facing the Middle East, and particularly Palestine and Israel, it is eligible for the Young American Mind Award. Can be sent directly to the KC for consideration by December 1.

If it’s student and/or faculty written, and it’s a musical, the composer, lyricist and librettist are eligible for the KCACTF Musical Theatre Award. Can be sent directly to the KC for consideration by December 1.

If it’s student or faculty written, and addresses issues of social justice and/or civil rights, it is eligible for the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award.... Can be sent directly to the KC for consideration by December 1.

If it’s student written or written by a working playwright and produced at a college or university, it is sent to the Regional Chair who in turn sends two nominations to the KC in late November for the David Mark Cohen Award. Must be sent to your regional chair by November 1.
                                FOR PARTICIPATING AND ASSOCIATE PRODUCTIONS

Regional Awards

Remember we have our new David L. Shelton Full-length Student Playwriting Project.  If your students have written full-length plays PLEASE send them to me to be considered for this new award.  The play chosen will have a staged reading at the ‘08 Festival and be brought back (even if you can’t mount it) to the ‘09 Festival for a participating production!

Short Play Award, the two winning short plays read at the festival are brought back the next year as fully supported participating productions.

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