Playscripts Award & Scholarship for High School Playwrights
We are thrilled to announce the Playscripts Award & Scholarship as part of Writopia Lab’s Worldwide Plays Festival, an annual theater festival featuring the next generation of playwrights. This year, in addition to a production in New York City, high school juniors and seniors will have the chance to win our $2,500 college scholarship. (If you’re not a junior or senior you can still win a scholarship! David Letterman's production house, Worldwide Pants, is also giving out a $2,500 scholarship to the playwright who writes the funniest play of the 2013 festival.)
The Guidelines
- Two plays in each category (elementary, middle, and high school) will be produced as part of Writopia Lab's off-Broadway theater festival in May.
- Playwrights must be in 1st -12th grade (11th or 12th grade to be considered for the Playscripts Award & Scholarship)
- The first 250 submissions will receive a written critique by a professional playwright.
- Maximum 12 pages (in standard format)
- No excerpts, full plays only.
- No more than two collaborators per piece
- 1 to 12 characters (2-12 characters for to be considered for the Playscripts Award & Scholarship)
- No fanfiction
- Musicals are accepted!
- Cover sheet with the following information is required: title, full name of writer, birthday, grade, address, two phone numbers, and email address.
- Hard copy submissions only, postmarked by January 25, 2013 may be sent to:
Writopia Lab
155 West 81st Street
Suite A
New York, NY 10024
Posted by Playscripts, Inc.
Announcing the #PitchNPlay Winner!
We are excited to announce the winner of our first annual Pitch ‘N’ Play playwriting competition: How to Kiss a Girl by Wade Bradford, based on a Twitter pitch by Leslie Kenner.
Because of the overwhelming number of excellent submissions, the Playscripts, Inc literary department has decided to publish two finalists in addition to the winning play. Those finalists are Lovers, Lunatics, and Poets by Kelly McAllister, based on a pitch he wrote, and Sadie And The Package by Ben Kingsland, based on a pitch by Emilio Rodriguez.
Through the contest, we hoped to facilitate collaborations between theatre teachers, artists and fans who might be miles apart (both in space and style). We were thrilled with the smart, engaging, surprising new plays these virtual partnerships delivered.
Thank you to all the playwrights, pitchers and voters who participated in the contest. Be on the lookout for all three plays in the next few months!
Posted by Playscripts, Inc.
The #PitchNPlay Winners
It was a difficult decision, but our literary staff has chosen three winning pitches:
- The real Puck messes with hearts of teens during high school prod of A Midsummer Nights Dream. @rkmallister
- Young girl wins a TV singing competition, but to launch her career, her agent says she'll need to create a tabloid scandal. @Theatreaneater
- Sweethearts take Course of True Love: zen of snoring, white lies, multitasking, accept shortcomings Profs=historical figures @KennerLeslie
Next Steps: The playwriting portion of the contest is now open! It's your chance to turn one of the three winning pitches into a one-act play.
The Rules: All plays should:
- Be based on one of the three winning pitches
- Be PG-13 or cleaner
- Be comedic
- Feature 8 or more characters
- Run between 20 - 40 minutes
All play submissions should be sent via http://www.playscripts.com/submit and must include #pitchnplay in the Comments or Special Instructions field. Please read the Pitch 'N' Play Submission Disclosure and Agreement before your submit your play.
The Timeline:
May 5: Play submissions are closed.
June 5: The winning play is announced!
The Reward: The winning playwright will receive a $1,000 advance against royalties, and his or her play will be published by Playscripts, Inc..
Helpful Hints:
High school drama programs often find themselves in the following situations:
- Twice as many girls audition as boys.
- Budget permits only simple sets and costumes.
- Full cast is not available for every rehearsal (many school plays are episodic, allowing scenes featuring different characters to be rehearsed separately.)
And remember, a great title goes a long way.
Thanks again for your votes and tweets, we look forward to reading your plays.
Posted by Playscripts, Inc.
Playscripts #PitchNPlay Contest
New social technologies (Twitter in particular) are changing the way that writers, readers, and theatergoers promote, discuss, and debate new plays. But, could social innovations like Twitter also help to create new work? We think so! That's why we are inviting our Twitter followers to pitch us ideas for the next great Playscripts play. The first ever Playscripts Pitch 'N' Play playwriting contest gives you the chance to write a winning pitch, a winning play, or both!
The Basics: Today until February 21st we'll be collecting pitch ideas via Twitter that are inspired by this Shakespeare quote, "The course of true love never did run smooth."
The Rules: All pitches should be PG-13 or cleaner, comedic, have the potential for 8 or more characters, and have the ability to be performed between 20 - 40 minutes.
You don't need to directly reference all of the above criteria in your pitch, just don't pitch an idea that can't yield a play with those features (for example, a one woman reenactment of the movie Scarface.) You're free to make as many pitches as you want.
To be considered for the pitching portion of the contest, you must follow @Playscripts on Twitter and your pitch must include the hashtag #pitchnplay.
From the submitted tweets, Playscripts will choose 30 semi-finalists who will be narrowed down to 10 finalists by an online poll. From the 10 finalists, the Playscripts Literary team will select 3 Pitch 'N' Play winning pitches.
All interested playwrights will then have two months to write and submit a one-act play based on one of the 3 winning pitches. All play submissions should be sent via http://www.playscripts.com/submit and must include #pitchnplay in the Comments or Special Instructions field.
The Timeline:
February 14: Pitch 'N' Play begins with Twitter pitches.
February 21: Pitching closes at 12:00 AM.
February 22: 30 semi-finalists are announced via an online poll and voting begins.
February 28: Online voting ends at 12:00 AM.
February 29: 10 finalists are announced.
March 5: The three winning pitches are announced and submissions for the play portion officially open.
May 5: Play submissions are closed.
June 5: The winning play is announced!
The Reward:
The three winning pitches will be contacted via direct message on Twitter and receive a $100 reward.
The winning playwright will receive a $1,000 advance, and his or her play will be published.
At Playscripts, we're always looking for ways to engage more directly with our playwrights and customers, and to use available technology to expand the possibilities for the creation and distribution of new work. We can't wait to start reading your pitches! Submissions are now open.
Any additional inquiries should be directed to the Playscripts Twitter handle: @playscripts
Posted by Playscripts, Inc.
Playscripts Play of the Day
Chicken Bones for the Teenage Soup
by Alan Haehnel
Short Comedy
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