Native Voices’ 10th Annual Short Play Festival
Autry Museum of the American West
INFO: *Please note that we only accept submissions written for the stage or theatre by Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and First Nations artists.
It’s time for the 10th Annual Short Play Festival, and Native Voices wants to hear your story!
From Edward Curtis to Dances with Wolves to the Atlanta Braves, there have been many romanticized and colonized notions of how Indigenous People should look and dress. These images are sources of pride, heritage, and acculturation. What’s your story?
We want to hear from you! Share with us an event from your life, stories from your family, or the wildest figment of your imagination! We want to know how dress codes have impacted your world, your communities, and how you feel they may impact your future. Make the audience laugh or cry – but make them feel something! The only limitation is that your play must be no longer than 10-minutes! For those ten minutes, the stage is yours – we can’t wait to see what you bring to life!
For our 10th Annual Short Play Festival, More Than Moccasins, Native Voices invites playwrights to answer the question: “How have ‘dress codes’ affected you?” Plays can be fun-spirited or political, funny or dramatic -and all must be no longer than 10 minutes! Plays chosen to participate in the festival will also be entered to win the Von Marie Atchley Excellence in Playwriting award, a $1,000 cash prize!!
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.
Some ideas to spark the imagination are:
Native pride and family heirlooms
Boarding schools and assimilation
Festivals and ‘headdresses’ (Hello, Coachella!)
Culture, not a costume
Eagle feathers (Graduations, Public Ceremonies, Rearview Mirrors, etc)
Hairstyles and Public Institutions
Traditional / Pow Wow Regalia
‘Rock Your Mocs’
‘Why We Wear Red’ (MMIP / MMIW)
Traditional tattoos
Redface or ‘Playing Indian’
Mascots
Historical Events (i.e. Boston Tea Party)
DEADLINE: June 15, 2020
https://theautry.org/events/signature-programs/native-voices-annual-call-for-scripts
NARRATIVE PRIZE
Narrative
INFO: The Narrative Prize is awarded annually for the best short story, novel excerpt, poem, one-act play, graphic story, or work of literary nonfiction published by a new or emerging writer in Narrative.
The prize is announced each September and is given to the best work published each year in Narrative by a new or emerging writer, as judged by the magazine’s editors. In some years, the prize may be divided between winners, when more than one work merits the award.
AWARD: $4,000
DEADLINE: June 15, 2020
Apothetae & Lark Playwriting Fellowship
The Lark
INFO: The Lark is accepting applications for the second round of its Apothetae and Lark Playwriting Fellowship program, supported by the Ford Foundation and Howard Gilman Foundation.
The Apothetae and Lark Playwriting Fellowship includes a two-year residency for a Deaf/Disabled Writer. The selected Fellow will work on multiple artistic projects through an individually-tailored program of Lark play development programs, and develop relationships with other theatermakers at various career stages from all parts of the world. The Fellowship includes a cash award of $40,000, plus a $5,000 Opportunity Fund for project-related expenses, and control over a $10,000 Production Enhancement Fund, to be allocated to a producing theater in support of a full production of one of the Fellow’s plays. The Fellowship also includes access to a wide range of Lark and Apothetae resources, including artistic program participation, office and rehearsal space, and staff support.
Up to two Finalists for the award will each receive a $5,000 honorarium.
The 2020 Fellowship period begins September 15, 2020 and ends September 14, 2022.
The Apothetae and Lark Playwriting Fellowship program is the centerpiece of a broad Apothetae and Lark Initiative, designed to provide a significant platform of support and advocacy for Deaf/Disabled Artists and to promote the generation of new works with the power to revolutionize the cultural conversation surrounding Disability. The Apothetae, a theater company founded in 2012 and devoted to challenging perceptions of the “Disabled Experience,” and The Lark, an organization founded in 1994 and devoted to the principles of equity, inclusion, community, and the power of an individual artistic voice, have been working in partnership to address the profound underrepresentation and oppressive misrepresentation of people with disabilities that persists throughout our cultural media.
The Apothetae and Lark Playwriting Fellowship is a critical component in The Lark’s acclaimed portfolio of fellowships. The portfolio is designed to engage a diverse community of extraordinary playwrights—at various places in their careers—who represent, collectively, a contemporary national vision. The Lark believes that targeted support to playwrights from underrepresented backgrounds is essential to a culture of equity, access and inclusion, and a national theater that represents the vibrancy of our collective cultural voices. The Apothetae and Lark Fellow will be in residence at The Lark as part of a community of artists from across the country and around the world, gathered to explore and illuminate the most important issues of our time.
Fellows will:
Work with Lark and Apothetae staff to identify individual artistic goals for the fellowship year, toward generating and developing new plays through a series of Lark programs;
Meet, collaborate, engage and work with a community of other professionals in the field, including playwrights, directors, actors, agents, producers and other industry leaders as appropriate;
Participate in and/or observe a variety of Lark’s play development processes, whether on or offsite, including retreats, workshops, readings, etc.;
Receive support for the advancement of work generated during the Fellowship year, including control over a $10,000 Production Enhancement Fund to be allocated to a producing theater partner in support of a full production of one of Fellow’s plays;
Receive continued access to Lark development programs beyond the fellowship period
FINANCIAL AWARD
Fellows will receive:
$40,000 fellowship stipend paid in monthly increments for two years;
$5,000 Opportunity Fund;
Control over $10,000 Production Enhancement Fund to be allocated as Fellow chooses for the purposes of supporting a full production of a particular play
Please note that the fellows will receive a Form 1099 for the 2020, 2021 and 2022 calendar years and be responsible for their own taxes.
ELIGIBILITY
Fellowship applicants must:
Identify as a playwright with a disability;
Be a U.S. Citizen, Permanent Resident, or Non-Citizen who possesses valid work authorization (permanent resident status/green card, refugee or asylum status, or temporary protected status);
Make a case for how their work can engage the cultural conversation surrounding Disability;
Make a case for how the Fellowship and participation in The Lark and The Apothetae’s community would promote transformative artistic and professional growth.
The program uses the legal definition of disability as articulated in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended, which reads that an individual with a disability is a person who:
Has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities;
Has a record of such an impairment; or
Is regarded as having such an impairment.
The Lark and The Apothetae recognize and acknowledge that not all Deaf/Disabled agree with the signification outlined in this legislation. For further specifications of this definition, the full text of the ADA is available through this link.
DEADLINE: Extended to June 30, 2020
https://www.larktheatre.org/get-involved/submit-play/#apothetae
Call for Work: To Speak as a Flower: A Folio of Performance Writing
Anomaly
INFO: Anomaly invites previously unpublished submissions of poems, prose, playwriting, video, art, and hybrid genres of work that might fall under a broad rubric of performance writing. We embrace this term’s wide scope, encompassing everything from Don Mee Choi’s turn to playwriting conventions in “Hardly Opera” (from which we draw our title) and jayy dodd’s scene in Anomaly‘s issue 26 folio Radical : Avant Garde Poets of Color, to Tatsumi Hijikata’s dance notations and Duriel Harris’ musical scores as poems.
We are interested in work that uses performance as one of its tools, work which is made possible by a relationship to performance — even if that performance never happens, or imagines impossible commitments. What forms might such composition take if it followed Etel Adnan’s provocation that “memory and theatre work in similar ways,” or if it pursued a stage “more open to different ways of moving” (as Hilton Als has characterized Adrienne Kennedy’s work)? We are committed to promoting the work of marginalized and underrepresented artists, including by Black, Indigenous, and other artists of color, as well as, disabled, neurodivergent, women, queer, trans, and gender nonconforming artists — and we wonder whether this form might be especially useful for these artists!
DEADLINE: July 1, 2020
BRTW ARTIST SUBMISSIONS: MELANATED MONDAYS
Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop
INFO: Each month, Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop (in New York) producers curate a selection of new works by the hottest up-and-coming Black writers around a new theme. On the 3rd Monday of each month, BRTW’s ensemble brings these pieces to life and facilitates a conversation with the audience about the underlying societal issues highlighted in the pieces and potential solutions to those challenges.
If you're a writer [plays, poetry, music, screenplays] of African heritage who would like to share your work that directly relates to Black experiences with our audience, please submit your work.
HONORARIUM: $50
DEADLINE: Ongoing
https://airtable.com/shr9KOsK68EZX9K8E
SUBMISSION OPPORTUNITY
San Diego REPertory Theatre
INFO: San Diego REPertory Theatre is happy to accept scripts from agents and theater professionals with whom we have an existing relationship. In general, we no longer accept unsolicited scripts from unrepresented writers. However, we continue to offer an open submission policy for plays and musicals from Latino(a) writers across the country because we are committed to supporting today’s Latino(a) voices. In addition, local writers residing in the Southern California area may submit a query letter about their new work that includes a current email contact and:
A brief biography of your writing history, noting awards and production history
A paragraph about why your play is a good match for the San Diego REP
A one-page synopsis of the play including number of cast, genre & run-time
For musicals, please also include a CD with sample songs from the score
Our six-show season can include full-length plays, musicals with a small cast and band, solo pieces, and adaptations performed on one of two stages (250-500 seats) for about 4 weeks. Past programming has highlighted voices of the Latino, African-Americans, and Jewish communities. Before submitting, please make sure that your script is aligned with our mission. It is also advised that you attend some of our productions to become more familiar with our sensibility.
If we are interested, we will contact you to request a copy of the full script within a few months.
Send to:
San Diego REPertory Theatre
Literary Department
79 Horton Plaza
San Diego, CA 92101
DEADLINE: Ongoing
https://www.sdrep.org/opportunities.php