CALL FOR BLACK / INDIGENOUS PLAYWRIGHTS
Grey Noise Theatre
INFO: Grey Noise is pleased to announce our summer-long submission window for plays from Black and otherwise indigenous playwrights. In an effort to give voice to those most affected by racialized police violence in North America, we are soliciting scripts from playwrights who identify as Black, African-American, Native, First Nations, Metis, Inuit, Taíno, etc.
Three plays will be chosen by committee for virtual readings and workshopping during summer and fall 2020. Grey Noise reserves the right to select additional plays for readings if those initially selected are of a short enough length that they could share a workshop date with another script. Those plays selected will automatically go into consideration for full production during Grey Noise's future seasons post-covid-19.
Plays may be on any topic and may be any length 10 pages or more. The submission form requires a title, synopsis, and attached 10-page excerpt. IMPORTANT: Your play does not need to be about police brutality or racial themes to be chosen. We are honored to lift up the stories of your struggle, but we also love to use our platform to celebrate Black/indigenous joy.
DEADLINE: September 4, 2020
https://greynoisetheatre.org/summer-play-submissions-bipoc
CALL FOR BLACK PLAYWRIGHTS
Broadway Bound Theatre Festival
INFO: BBTF stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. Submissions are now open for Black playwrights only.
We’re dedicated to combating systemic racism, individually and also collectively as a theatrical organization that has historically been dedicated to empowering playwrights as self-producers.
We’ve waived our $25 Reader Fee and, if accepted for that slot, the $1000 Acceptance Fee. Please complete the application. And submit your finished script. (Note: Musicals: Maximum 120 minutes plus a 10 minute intermission. Straight plays: Maximum 90 minutes in length; minimum 60 minutes.) No short plays, please. Black playwrights only. Please visit our FAQ for more information.
DEADLINE: Sept. 6, 2020 at midnight EST
https://www.broadwayboundfestival.com/black-playwright-application
Nancy Dean Lesbian Playwriting Award
Open Meadows Foundation
INFO: The Nancy Dean award for Lesbian Playwrights is to honor a woman who was at the forefront of Lesbian, queer, gay, genderqueer, gender-nonconforming, trans, intersex and people of color movements. We honor her focus and writing on Lesbian relationships before the time of the Stonewall rebellion. Her writings were the precursor to social change. In that spirit of struggle and often hidden desire we encourage the submission of new plays that address the conflict of lesbian, queer or gay, trans and nonbinary women struggling to live and love their best lives. In these times of social definition and refinement the age-old conflict of acceptance and the right to live our true lives as we truly are is still our continuing fight which is refined and embolden by each new generation.
We understand people have their own language for their gender and sexuality. We are open to submission from people who are lesbian, queer or gay, trans and nonbinary.
As we are a small family foundation with an all-volunteer board, we must rely on nominations to identify potential recipients. We are asking professors, teachers, artistic directors, directors, literary managers, actors, writers, and others to nominate promising writers. As we want to be inclusive, we will allow people to self-nominate. The following are our guidelines:
Writer is lesbian, queer or gay and nonbinary;
Writer has written at least one play;
Writer is writing plays about lesbians;
Writer is committed to writing plays and furthering her/their career;
Writer is interested in receiving the award.
Please send a letter(pdf) describing why your writer should receive this award and a full-length play (pdf) to openmeadowsfdn@gmail.com. In your letter, please be as detailed as possible in up to 2 pages. Include the writer’s resume and website or other social media links.
AWARD: $5000 (including $1000 from Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation in memory of Dr. Donna R. Barnes).
DEADLINE: September 15, 2020
http://www.openmeadows.org/nancy-dean-lesbian-playwriting-award.html
CALL FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL & HIGH SCHOOL PLAYS BY BIPOC PLAYWRIGHTS
Theatrefolk Inc.
INFO: Theatrefolk Inc. is seeking one-act Middle School & High School play submissions by BIPOC playwrights for immediate publication.
Our mission is to represent student voices and to let students know they are not alone. It has been made clear where we have succeeded and where we have failed in this pursuit. We want to do better.
It’s crucial that students know there are playwrights out there speaking directly to them and for them.
Middle School Play Submission Criteria
Plays are between 25 and 35 minutes in length.
The majority of our customers at the Middle School level work on productions during class so the running time should fit within a class period.Plays have a majority of middle-school-aged characters.
We want to feature middle-school-aged voices.Plays are contemporary.
We want stories that take place today.Plays have simple staging requirements
Many of our customers need to do a lot with a little.Can your play be performed online?
Not a requirement. But we envision that plays that can be performed online or in a social distancing scenario may receive more productions.
High School Play Submission Criteria
We welcome both full-lengths and one acts
One act plays running 35 minutes or less are preferable, as they can be used in competition.Plays have a majority of high-school-aged characters.
We want to feature teen voices.Plays are contemporary.
We want stories that take place today.Plays have simple staging requirements
Many of our customers need to do a lot with a little.Can your play be performed online?
Not a requirement. But we envision that plays that can be performed online or in a social distancing scenario may receive more productions.
DEADLINE: September 15, 2020
https://www.theatrefolk.com/submissions
New Short Works Play Festival
Arena Players Inc.
INFO: Arena Players Inc. of Baltimore, MD, the country’s oldest continually running African-American Community Theater, is pleased to announce our New Short Works Play Festival. We are launching a program to develop new short plays from emerging Black playwrights.
Six to eight short plays will be developed and staged for the festival. Each play will be assigned a director and cast and receive 6 workshop sessions with a professional theater mentor culminating in a weekend of staged performances on the Arena Players’ main stage.
GUIDELINES:
Submit your short play; no more than 15-minutes.
Tech and set requirements should be minimal.
Cast size should not exceed 4.
Please email pdf of your play to Deletta at: delettagillespie@gmail.com
SUBMISSION FEE: $0
DEADLINE: September 15, 2020
https://www.arenaplayersinc.com
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers
New York Public Library
INFO: The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers offers Fellowships to people whose work will benefit directly from access to the research collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Renowned for the extraordinary comprehensiveness of its collections, the Library is one of the world’s preeminent resources for study in anthropology, art, geography, history, languages and literature, philosophy, politics, popular culture, psychology, religion, sociology, sports, and urban studies.
The Cullman Center’s Selection Committee awards fifteen Fellowships a year to outstanding scholars and writers—academics, independent scholars, journalists, creative writers (novelists, playwrights, poets), translators, and visual artists. Foreign nationals conversant in English are welcome to apply. Candidates for the Fellowship will need to work primarily at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building rather than at other divisions of the Library. People seeking funding for research leading directly to a degree are not eligible.
The Cullman Center looks for top-quality writing. It aims to promote dynamic communication about literature and scholarship at the very highest level—within the Center, in public forums throughout the Library, and in the Fellows’ published work.
A Cullman Center Fellow receives a stipend of up to $75,000, the use of an office with a computer, and full access to the Library’s physical and electronic resources. Fellows work at the Center for the duration of the Fellowship term, which runs from September through May. Each Fellow gives a talk over lunch on his or her current work-in-progress to the other Fellows and to a wide range of invited guests, and may be asked to take part in other programs at The New York Public Library.
DEADLINE: September 25, 2020
CALL FOR PLAYS
Theatre Viscera
INFO: We are currently accepting submissions for our 2021 Podcast season.
We are only able to accept the first 100 submissions, upon which the submission period will close. If we reach our cap of 100 submissions before the stated close date of Friday September 25th, we will make an announcement on our website and social media that the contest will close the following day at 5:00pm PT.
As the situation with the Coronavirus and COVID-19 continues to develop, we are moving to virtual work for the time being in order to continue our commitment to telling queer stories while focusing on the health and safety of our community. We are therefore accepting submissions for the 2021 Podcast season with Theatre Viscera. We are looking for pieces that will read well in a podcast format, but we are not producing Radio Plays. This is a great opportunity to send us weird work that might be “less producible” because of strange conventions or unique storytelling.
At this time we are accepting only one submission per playwright.
Submissions may be full length plays, a collection of one acts totally no more than 100 minutes reading time, or a collection of 10 minute plays totally no more than 100 minutes reading time. Submissions must be between 60-100 minutes of reading time, or about 60-100 pages of formatted script.
For collections of one acts or 10 minute plays, we are accepting collaborations as long as the individual pieces have a through line of plot, theme, or theatrical device.
We are not accepting musicals at this time.
We have a preference for pieces with modest cast lists (8 characters or less.)
We have a preference for pieces that tell stories of trans and GNC characters, as well as stories at the intersections of oppression; disabled queer characters, BIPOC queer characters, etc.
We are looking for plays by queer artists, about queer characters, for queer actors.
DEADLINE: September 25, 2020 at 5:00pm PT
https://www.theatreviscera.com/work-with-us-playwrights
CALL FOR PLAYWRIGHTS OF COLOR
Livermore Shakespeare Festival
INFO: Livermore Shakespeare Festival (LSF) will be producing a series of semi-staged play readings focused on science. One of the plays will be a newly commissioned work celebrating scientists of color and exploring a current science theme.
If selected, you will be tasked with writing an original play which includes a component about scientific research currently pursued by our local National Laboratories. Many possibilities include using supercomputers to identify a COVID-19 vaccine and treatment candidates. We will partner the selected playwright with advisory support from scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and/or Sandia National Laboratory. Livermore and the surrounding Tri-Valley has a large population of scientists and engineers. Access to these scientists is especially important because they bring research-backed knowledge and experience that accurately represents the ever-evolving landscape of natural and man-made phenomena.
As the pandemic sweeps our nation, social change is also sweeping our nation. In recognition of the change that needs to happen in our society, LSF is committed to broadening its production of plays written by people of color. In our first ever commission, we seek to hire and collaborate with a writer of color for a play where the lead character (a scientist or engineer) is a person of color and the cast includes people of color in roles that are representative of the work we are capable of achieving. This is important because as a society, we are largely unaware of the important scientific contributions people of color have made in the fields of science, technology and engineering.
Below you will find a request for qualifications. Please read each section carefully so that you are aware of the requirements, guidelines and commission rate. Because of the number of submissions we may receive, it is important that you strictly follow the instructions for this request. Failure to do so may result in your application not being fully processed. NOTE: there is no submission fee.
After the play is completed, there will be a semi-staged reading of the play, produced by LSF. A full production of the play may also be possible after the reading program is complete.
Playwright must be committed to a flexible working environment because of the current state of affairs in society. In part, this means remote work will be a necessity until deemed safe to work otherwise. This request for qualifications will be ongoing until a playwright is selected.
Requirements:
1. Must have a B.A. or B.S.
2. Must have completed at least one full length script, on any subject, that has been produced in a festival, by a professional theatre, writers foundation or as a series of developmental readings with a professional theatre company or playwrights foundation. Self-production does not fit these guidelines.
3. We are specifically looking for artists of color.
4. The project may receive government funds, therefore the playwright chosen must be a U.S. citizen.
**Supplemental Requirements
1.Must have access to good internet connection that is capable of streaming via Zoom / Webex or the like.
DEADLINE: September 26, 2020
https://livermoreshakes.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/ScienceAtPlay_RFQ_Final-1-1.pdf