Native Voices at the Autry Call for Scripts 2019–2020
The Autry Museum of the American West
SHORT PLAYS
Short plays submitted by July 1, 2019 will be considered for Native Voices’ 9th Annual Short Play Festival, to take place in November 2019 at the American Indian Arts Marketplace at the Autry in Los Angeles. Read more about the theme for the Short Play Festival below.
BONES, BINGO & BLACKJACK!
The 9th Annual Short Play Festival
Whet your appetite for clever, funny, dramatic, and thoughtful 10-minute scripts. Indian gaming has served many roles and goes back to ancient times when the winning bet could be life or death. It’s brought both prosperity and problems to the REZ in modern times. What’s your story?
Short plays are fun. Tell us the stories you like best. Make the audience laugh or cry - but make them feel something! Many short plays go on to become full-length scripts.
Native Voices invites playwrights to answer the question: “What has gaming done for you lately?” Plays can be fun-spirited or political, funny or dramatic.
Some ideas to spark the imagination are:
Throwing bones - games of life and death
Bingo big and small
Casinos
Casinos and the Mob!
Per Cap
Wealth
Distribution of wealth!
Economic Development
Self-sufficiency
Promoting robust tribal governments
Tribes as the primary beneficiaries of gaming activities
Impact on local tribes
What happens at Indian Gaming and Tradeshow Conventions stays at Indian Gaming and Tradeshow Conventions!
National Indian Gaming Association
Scripts that are longer than 15 pages or read aloud at longer than 10 minutes will not be accepted. Fresh, surprising perspectives are welcome, and unique theatricality is a must.
Selection Process: Short plays (15 page maximum) that are related to the theme and are received by July 1, 2019 will be read and evaluated by a national reading panel comprised of Native American theatre artists and community members along with nationally-recognized theatre artists. The panel will select 5 to 8 plays for the festival based on the creative use of the theme, originality, theatricality, structure, and execution.
Selected plays will be given a staged reading on November 10, 2019, as part of the Autry Museum of the American West’s American Indian Arts Marketplace. A panel of judges will select the 2019 Von Marie Atchley Award for Excellence in Playwriting, a $1,000 cash prize!
Plays must be submitted using our online submission form and in the correct format. Please see our “Checklist for All Submissions” below for further details.
DEADLINE: July 1, 2019
FULL-LENGTH PLAYS
Native Voices accepts submissions of full-length plays (60+ pages) by Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and First Nations playwrights addressing all themes and topics - ALL YEAR LONG.
To be considered for the 2020 Playwrights Retreat and 26th Festival of New Plays we ask that you please submit by August 5, 2019.
The Retreat and Festival bring artists to Los Angeles to work on 3–5 plays through a rigorous directorial and dramaturgical commitment for 10 days in May/June. The retreat culminates in public presentations of the plays at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles and La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. Selected playwrights receive directorial and dramaturgical support as well as an honorarium; out-of-town artists receive roundtrip airfare plus lodging in Southern California.
Selection Process: Full-length plays (60+ pages) received by August 5, 2019, will be read and evaluated. A select number of playwrights will be invited to submit formal proposals detailing their developmental goals should their play be chosen for the shortlist. Scripts will then be sent to a committee of nationally recognized theatre artists for further evaluation. With their help, Native Voices selects up to five plays for the Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays. Playwrights will be notified in January 2020.
*Missed one of the deadlines listed above? Don’t worry! Native Voices accepts scripts all year long. The deadlines listed are for the Short Play Festival and Retreat & Festival development opportunities. We have numerous other workshop and reading slots both here at the Autry and with partnering organizations. So, go ahead and submit!
DEADLINE: August 5, 2019