If you're a playwright looking to get your plays up on their feet and work with some killer Bay Area talent, your time has come! There are three great opportunities on the horizon (and one isn't an exclusive Bay Area opportunity!), and each come with their own community of artists for you to mingle and create with!
###PlayGround - deadline June 30, 2017
PlayGround, the Bay Area's leading playwright incubator, has opened up submissions for their 2017/18 writers pool! If selected you'll get the joy of writing one brand new ten-minute play in only four days time! Once a month from October-March, you'll get a prompt on Friday, with the due date being the following Tuesday. The next Monday the top six plays are performed as script-in-hand staged readings on the Berkeley Rep stage.
I was in the writers pool for three years, it's a fantastic opportunity to connect with other writers, and meet local directors and actors. DO IT!
What you need/the rules:
- Must currently live in the Bay Area.
- A ten-minute play.
That's it! So get to writing, or get to polishing, and send that play off to the folks at PlayGround. For all the submission details, please visit: http://playground-sf.org/submit/.
###PianoFight's Shortlived - deadline April 10, 2017
PianoFight‘s submission period for the 2017 ShortLived competition has just been announced, and the deadline is coming up quick. I've had two plays produced for ShortLived, and it's a hoot all around.
You can submit as a group, with actors and directors attached, or as an individual and the folks at PianoFight will help you with the rest. The prize for winning Shortlived is reason enough to throw your hat in the ring- ahem, FIVE grand! - but it's also a fun and low stress way to get your work up on its feet AND for the people at PianoFight to get to know what you do. Which you want because they have their beautiful new theater space with a bar and three separate stages.
For Shortlived you need to be a Bay Area local. You can find the details and apply here: Shortlived Guidelines.
Same link if you're interested in acting or directing in the festival, or if you want to submit your sketch group.
###San Francisco Olympians Festival IX: Roman Holiday - deadline May 15, 2017 - National Submissions Accepted!
The San Francisco Olympians Festival is accepting proposals for new plays now until mid-May. On their handy-dandy website you'll find the list of next festival's subjects and the length for each play. Pick a few that tickle your fancy, and send in what you'd write. It's very straight forward. If selected, you'll have a year to write your piece, and then next October you'll get to see a staged reading of your brand-spanking-new play! The loveliest part of the SF Olympians Festival isn't their amazing auditions (though they are GREAT), but instead the importance put on the writers community for the festival. You have pot luck meetings, you share your work, struggles, and triumphs, and then you pack in to watch one another's work at the end of it all, it can't be beat.
This year SIX slots will be held for NATIONAL submissions, meaning for the first time ever, the festival is NOT limited to local writers. So playwrights near and far, check out the subjects and send off your ideas, you can submit as many proposals as you'd like!
You'll find allllll the info here: http://www.sfolympians.com/.
Great, you're informed of exciting new avenues! Now get on your own personal #submissionmission and make stuff happen!