THEATER -- AUGUST 2018

INTENSIVE FOR MALE PLAYWRIGHTS OF COLOR

Lit Council

INFO: In partnership with The Tank, LIT Council is a development intensive for Male Playwrights of Color. During their time with the Council (September 2018 through April 2019), writers will hone a play guided by the Bechdel Test to ensure gender equity in storytelling. The program will culminate in a reading workshop of each participant’s play, hosted at The Tank (312 West 36th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue). In order to further promote collaboration and communication between genders, each play will be attached to a female director of color, chosen from a group of professionals and mentors, who will be active presences throughout the process.

For each session, participants will receive feedback and mentorship from 3 professional Facilitators: Beto O’Byrne (playwright-in-residence at Stella Adler; 2050 Playwriting Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop), Jerome A. Parker (MacDowell and Dramatist Guild Fellow), and Akin Salawu (Inaugural Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater; two-time Tribeca All Access Winner) are all writers of color with working experience in the industry and theatrical credits in New York City and around the country. They created LIT Council with the Tank to have a professional setting where whiteness is de-centered and the “white gaze” isn’t a deterrent or the raison d’etre for a play’s birth, voice and steps in the world. Participants will be pushed to create works where female characters are given equal weight to their male counterparts and also supported to stretch their voice in writing for, and collaborating with, women.

LIT Council seeks daring applicants of color from all levels, and ALL who identify as male, to work on a play already in progress. The chosen participants will demonstrate great appetite and aptitude for crafting uncompromised stories, while understanding the pressing need to represent “other” voices, especially those of women, fully in their work. As this is a collective, the Council looks for artists not only with experience in taking the reign of their own creative process, but also with a desire to collaborate with the other participating artists in the room. The Tank is located in New York, so applicants need to be NYC-based in order to participate in weekend meetings, readings and other program-related events.

THE FACILITATORS

Beto O’Byrne hails from East Texas and is the co-founder of Radical Evolution, a multi-ethnic, multi-disciplinary producing collective based in Brooklyn, NY. The author of 20 plays, screenplays, and original TV pilots, his works have been produced in San Antonio, Austin, Los Angeles and New York City, where was the most recent playwright-in-residence at the Stella Adler School of Acting and a 2050 Playwriting Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. In addition, O’Byrne is an advocate for the performing arts field, having worked with organizations such as Theatre Communications Group, La Cooperativa of Latinx Theatre Artists of NYC, and the Latinx Theatre Commons. MFA, Dramatic Writing: University of Southern California. www.betoobyrne.com

Jerome A. Parker is a MacDowell and Dramatist Guild Fellow from New York City. His work has been developed through readings and productions at the Public Theater, the Old Vic, the Cherry Lane, Classical Theatre of Harlem, the National Black Theater, BAAD!, Company of Angels, American Lyric Theater, NY Stage and Film, Freedom Train Productions, Celebration Theater, On the Boards, the Musical Theater Factory, New York Musical Festival, and the Los Angeles Theater Center amongst others.

Akin Salawu is a two-time Tribeca All Access Winner with a BA from Stanford and a Screenwriting MFA from Columbia. At Stanford, Akin founded ergo student theater troupe and was awarded the Sherifa Omade Ego Prize for mounting culturally diverse theater. Akin was a member of The Public Theater’s Inaugural Emerging Writers Group and wrote Chapter 5 in the book, “The Obama Movement.” Akin also wrote 2 short plays on Ferguson for Chicago's American Theater. Akin developed his first musical The Real Whisper in Ars Nova’s Uncharted residency which premiered in the 2017 Polyphone Festival at The University of the Arts.

DEADLINE: August 3, 2018

http://thetanknyc.org/series/lit_council/ 

 

Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Playwrights Competition

INFO: The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre is seeking submissions for its Playwrights Competition. Plays must address a social issue(s) in a comedic way and have a hopeful ending. The script must have at least two African American women characters, one of whom is at least 40 years old. The script must have at least one scene where two females have a conversation that is not primarily about men. Three semi-finalists will be selected by a panel of theater arts professionals to include LHT’s Interim Artistic Director, Aldo Billingslea. 

PRIZE: $7,500 and a workshop to further develop the script to be considered for a full production in 2019.

DEADLINE: August 10, 2018

http://www.lhtsf.org/playwrights-competition

 

DAVID CHARLES HORN PRIZE

The Yale Drama Series

INFO: The Yale Drama Series is seeking submissions for its 2019 playwriting competition. The winning play will be selected by the series' current judge, Ayad Akhtar.

AWARD: $10,000, publication of his/her manuscript by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at Lincoln Center's Claire Tow Theater. The prize and publication are contingent on the playwright's agreeing to the terms of the publishing agreement.

SUBMISSION FEE: $0

DEADLINE: August 15, 2018

dchornfoundation.org/competition-rules

 

SUBMISSION FOR ENSEMBLE PLAYWRIGHT LAB

Letter of Marque Theater Co.

 INFO: The Ensemble Playwright Lab (EPL) is a residency program in which the playwright engages with Letter of Marque's (LOM) ensemble to create, develop, or reimagine a piece of work; which will be presented to the public at the end of the residency.

There will be two 6-week residencies: Fall & Winter. Two playwrights, one for each residency, will be selected to work with our ensemble once a week, for a total of 21 hours of collaboration and discovery.

The submissions will be prepared by a non-adjudicating member of our team. All submissions are anonymous until the semi-finalists are contacted via email for interviews. Please do not reference names of collaborators or affiliations.

The name and photo associated with your Google account will be recorded when you upload files and submit this form.

FEE: There is no monetary charge or fee to participate in the Ensemble Playwrights Lab. We ask for your time, dedication, and energy!

DEADLINE: August 20, 2018

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdFMRSBfjLOjKvhP4hFIqbNMu4_s7kLZJ_nY0FBuvwhM-R_zA/viewform

 

TRAVEL GRANT

Lotus Lee Foundation

INFO: Through the Travel Fellowship, Lotus Lee Foundation hopes to stimulate an in-depth discussion on the future development of the theater and performing arts industry. We are aiming at encouraging students and young professionals to exam this topic from different perspectives including business model, the market expands, art & technology integration, investment, cross-cultural communication, etc.

The fellowship will provide its recipients an opportunity to explore the theater industry in Shanghai, China; to broaden their experience and knowledge on the cultural exchange; to deepen their insights on the future of international performing arts field.

Lotus Lee Foundation is a New York City based 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Our mission is to bridge arts and technology; to nourish the cultural exchange between China and America through theater and education; to enhance the voice of emerging artists and young professionals, especially those from the Asian community.

    ELIGIBILITY:

    • Applicants must live in the US.

    • Applicants must choose which group they belong to.
      • The Students Group includes, undergraduate students , and graduate students.
      • The Young Professionals Group includes  Ph.D, researchers, scholars and individuals who have graduated in the past 15 years. (Graduates prior to 2003 are ineligible.) Holders of multiple degrees may apply. Proof of revived diploma between 2003 and 2018 is required.
    • Student candidates must have one supervisor to help examine the work before submission. The supervisor can be the professor, instructor, or teacher. Supervisor’s information is required in the application.

    • Winners are expected to travel to China learn about the booming performing arts market and make a presentation on US-China Summit when coming back to the US.

    THEME: According to the data from Broadway League , theater audiences are growing older.  Broadway is no longer attracting young people to the theater. Meanwhile, various forms of off-line experience are emerging and in return urging the performing arts industry to make a reform. People are fascinated with Immersive Theater such as Sleep No More, interactive media exhibition such as Team Lab, and new types of theater experience such as Pandora – The World of Avatar in the theme park Disney's Animal Kingdom. Performers are no longer limited to the stage, while audiences are no longer bounded to the seats. 

    How will new technologies such as VR\AR transform the future stage? How soon will AI (Artificial Intelligence) be able to write a play, since it already writes poetry pretty well? How will Blockchain technology protect IP and benefit the entertainment industry? How should we educate our next generation through theater? These are all great questions that haven't yet been answered. And that's the reason why we founded this Travel Fellowship to attract people from different disciplines to give us their unique perspectives about the theater of the future. We'll then give the most insightful minds an opportunity to continue exploring the research topic in a global scale.

    IMPORTANT DATES:

    • April 30th, 2018: Registration open
    • July 16th, 2018: Submission open
    • Aug 27th, 2018: Registration & Submission officially close.
    • Aug 28th-Sep 14th: In-house selection
    • Sep 17th, 2018: Recipients announcement
    • Oct-Dec 2018: Winners get ready for the trip
    • Dec. 2018: Winners return to US, complete and present their study report

    AWARD:

    • Lotus Lee Foundation will pay for the one-week trip to Shanghai China, including
      • round-trip flight tickets (worth $1500)
      • 7 days hotel stay (worth $500)
      • $200 cash reimbursement for show tickets and/or related research expense (recipes required)
    • Studio visit to Lotus Lee Drama Studio
      • one of the most innovative theater companies in China
      • producer of the market hit piece  “Three Body Problem Part I”
    • 1 year free membership on Cennarium.com (worth $100)
    • Invitation to the award ceremony
    • US and China media exposure 

    https://www.lotus-lee.foundation/lotus-lee-travel-fellowship/ 

     

    INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

    Sustainable Arts Foundation

    INFO: Sustainable Arts Foundation – a non-profit foundation supporting artists and writers with families – is committed to offering half of its awards to applicants of color.

    Writers may apply in one of the following categories:

    • Creative Nonfiction
    • Early and Middle Grade Fiction
    • Fiction
    • Graphic Novels
    • Long Form Journalism
    • Picture Books
    • Playwriting
    • Poetry
    • Young Adult Fiction

    AWARD: $5,000

    DEADLINE: August 31, 2018

    apply.sustainableartsfoundation.org/