EMERGING VOICES PARTNERSHIP
The Hallmark Mahogany / The Black List
DEADLINE: November 8, 2022
INFO: The Hallmark Mahogany x The Black List Emerging Voices Partnership is a new collaboration that will offer a WGA-minimum open script deal to one writer who has an aptitude and passion for telling authentic stories that reflect the Black experience in the spirit of such classic movies like LOVE & BASKETBALL, JUMPING THE BROOM, and LOVE JONES.
The selected writer will develop an original Mahogany teleplay that embraces the initiative and Mahogany card brand’s core pillars of community, love, sisterhood, faith, and purpose.
In addition to the open script deal, Crown Media will provide 50 writers with coupons for one free month of hosting and two evaluations on blcklst.com.
This opportunity is open to all writers who can organically and authentically capture the Black experience. Interested writers may submit a feature or pilot script, play, or musical to blcklst.com.
blcklst.com/partnerships/opportunities/125
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The Philly Cycle
InterAct Theater Company
DEADLINE: November 11, 2022
INFO: Over the next two years InterAct will commission three plays to be written about and with Philadelphia communities that are under-represented on local (and national) stages. The first of the three Philly Cycle commissions will focus on the city’s community of African American Muslims, which numbers around 200,000.
InterAct Theatre Company is seeking U.S.-based playwrights who would be interested in immersing themselves in deep and ongoing conversations with this diverse community and ultimately crafting a singular story that centers this community.
Selected playwrights will receive a $15,000 commission, support for extensive play development both in and apart from the relevant community (including travel & local housing for playwrights based outside Philadelphia), and a guaranteed production (ideally in InterAct’s 2024-25 season)
WHAT TO EXPECT:
InterAct will support the development of each of The Philly Cycle play in four distinct ways:
• Facilitating partnerships with community leaders and community organizations as resources for playwrights to fully mine the worlds of their plays. For the first play, we are partnering with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-PA).
• Identifying and engaging fully professional artistic teams, including directors, dramaturgs, actors and others, as desired.
• Coordinating private workshops and public readings of each play, including in-progress readings on-site in relevant communities.
• Providing ongoing dramaturgical consultation with InterAct’s artistic staff throughout the process
SELECTION PROCESS:
Submissions will be evaluated in a two-phased process, within the context of conversations already underway with leaders in the Philadelphia African American Muslim community.
Phase 1: InterAct artistic staff will evaluate all applications, advancing those that are best aligned with the guidelines, vision and/or spirit of The Philly Cycle. Producing Artistic Director, Seth Rozin, and Literary Manager, Charlotte T. Martin, will conduct (virtual or inperson) interviews with applicant playwrights.
Phase 2: InterAct will re-engage community partners and leaders in conversation about the final short list of candidates, and together make a final decision.
interacttheatre.org/the-philly-cycle
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WORKSPACE RESIDENCY FOR LGBTQ+ WRITERS
Velvet Park
DEADLINE: November 11, 2022 at 11:59pm
APPLICATION FEE: $25
INFO: Velvet Park invites writers to apply for a six-month workspace residency (January – June 2023). Please keep in mind that the studio space is 114 sq ft. – 14’ x 8’, with 12’ ceilings, large 6’ x 6’ window). The studio is located in Crown Heights in Brooklyn.
CHECKLIST:
Poets, submit up to 15 – 20 pages of poetry
Prose, 25 – 30 pages of prose
Screenplay/play script, provide 1 – 2 completed works
additional works accepted via url, to online portfolio or published works
CV/Resume
should reflect your artistic/creative accomplishments
2 references
1 professional reference, who can speak about your work and
1 personal reference, who can speak about you personally, your work ethic, values, and any other pertinent information about you.
provide names and contact; phone/email of these individuals (letters not required).
finalists’ references will be contacted by selection committee to speak about you.
velvetparkmedia.com/writers-residency-2023/
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2023 Premiere Play Festival Submissions
Premiere Play Festival
DEADLINE: November 14, 2022
INFO: Premiere Stages is committed to supporting emerging and regional playwrights by developing and producing new plays. Since 2005, the Premiere Play Festival has offered playwrights the opportunity to develop their work in an encouraging, focused environment through discussions, rehearsals, readings, workshops, and Equity productions.
Through the Premiere Play Festival, Premiere Stages has developed many plays that have gone on to have successful productions in New York and at regional theatres throughout the country. We strive to facilitate relationships between writers and theatre professionals who we think will respond to their work, in hopes that plays developed at Premiere will go on to subsequent productions. We offer Play Festival winners the option to retain the coveted “World Premiere” brand on their plays. Additionally, Premiere’s productions are consistently reviewed, scouted by major publishing houses, and honored by the American Theatre Critics Association.
PLAY FESTIVAL GUIDELINES: Premiere Stages will accept submissions of unproduced plays written by playwrights affiliated with the greater metropolitan area from September 1, 2022, through November 14, 2022. All plays submitted to the festival are evaluated by a panel of professional theatre producers, directors, dramaturgs, playwrights, and publishers. Four to five finalists are subsequently selected for public Equity readings in Spring of 2023.
AWARDS: Following the Spring readings, one play is selected for an Equity production in the Premiere Stages 2024 season and receives an award of $3000. The runner-up receives a 29-hour staged reading and $1500. The other finalists will each be awarded $1000.
Premiere Stages is committed to supporting a diverse group of writers; playwrights of all backgrounds, ages, and experience levels are encouraged to apply.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
PDF Format Submissions Only
Plays must be full-length and have a cast size of no more than eight.
Plays must be unpublished and unproduced (readings and workshops are okay), with no productions and/or publication currently scheduled through September 2023.
Playwrights must have strong affiliations with the greater metropolitan area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware).
Musicals, adaptations (of existing plays or other sources), and solo shows are not eligible.
Submissions are limited to one script per playwright.
Please contact Premiere Stages to inquire about submitting a script that has been previously submitted.
Playwrights must be available for the development of their script (see the 2023 schedule table).
Submissions are accepted September 1, 2022 through 11:59 p.m. on November 14, 2022. Submissions sent early in the submission window are strongly encouraged.
Names and contact information are welcome on cover pages of scripts.
All plays must be submitted as a PDF via Submittable at premierestagesatkean.submittable.com/submit. Hard copies will not be accepted.
NON_AGENT SUBMISSIONS:
We accept script samples and synopses from playwrights without an agent. Submissions must include:
Brief synopsis of the play (no more than half a page)
History of the play’s development (or statement that it has none)
The playwright’s bio or resume
Script sample from the play (no more than 10 pages plus title page and character breakdown)
Premiere Stages will request full scripts to read if the play seems viable for the 2023 season. In 2022, almost half of the 35 Semi-Finalists were first received as samples.
All plays must be submitted as a PDF via Submittable at premierestagesatkean.submittable.com/submit. Hard copies will not be accepted.
AGENT SUBMISSIONS: Premiere Stages will accept full scripts from literary agents or theatre professionals affiliated with Premiere Stages.
premierestagesatkean.com/play-festival/guidelines/
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Scholars-in-Residence Program Fellowship 2023-24
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
DEADLINE: December 1, 2022
INFO: The Scholars-in-Residence Program offers both long-term and short-term fellowships designed to support and encourage top-quality research and writing on the history, politics, literature, and culture of the peoples of Africa and the African diaspora, as well as to promote and facilitate interdisciplinary exchange among scholars and writers in residence at the Schomburg Center.
Long-term fellowships provide a $35,000 stipend to support postdoctoral scholars and independent researchers who work in residence at the Center for a continuous period of six months. The Scholars-in-Residence Program provides funding for six fellows each year, three of whom are supported by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Selected fellows can choose to begin their term either in September or in January. Fellows are provided with individual office space and a computer, research assistance, and full access to the unparalleled resources of the Schomburg Center. In addition to pursuing their own research projects, fellows also engage in an ongoing interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, sharing their research with one another in a weekly work-in-progress seminar. While in residence, they are also exposed to the vibrant intellectual life of the Schomburg through its public exhibitions, panels, screenings, and events.
Short-term fellowships are open to postdoctoral scholars, independent researchers, and creative writers (novelists, playwrights, poets) who work in residence at the Center for a continuous period of one to three months. Short-term fellows receive a stipend of $3000 per month. (These short-term fellowships are a recent addition to the Scholars-in-Residence Program, having been offered for the first time in the 2017-18 application cycle; they are funded by an endowment provided by the Ford Foundation and the Newhouse Foundation.)
Both long-term and short-term fellowships are awarded for continuous periods in residence at the Schomburg Center. Fellows are expected to devote their full time to their research and writing. They are expected to work regularly at the Schomburg Center and to participate in the intellectual life of the Scholars-in-Residence Program. Fellows may not be employed during the period in residence, except on sabbaticals from their home institutions. Those selected as Scholars-in-Residence are encouraged to supplement their stipends with funding support from their home institutions or other non-residential fellowships or grants if the requisite approval is received from the Schomburg Center.
ELIGIBILITY: The Scholars-in-Residence Program is intended for scholars and writers requiring extensive, on-site research with collections at the Schomburg Center, the pre-eminent repository for documentation on the history and cultures of peoples of African descent around the globe. Fellows are expected to be in full-time residency at the Center during the award period and to participate in scheduled seminars and colloquia. The Program is intended to support research in African diasporic studies undertaken from a humanistic perspective; projects in the social sciences, science and technology, psychology, education, and religion are eligible if they utilize a humanistic approach and contribute to humanistic knowledge.
Candidates who need to work primarily in the New York Public Library's other research libraries – the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, and the Science, Industry and Business Library – are not eligible for this fellowship, nor are people seeking funding for research leading directly to a degree. (Applications are accepted from current doctoral students, as long as they will defend their dissertation and graduate before starting the fellowship tenure.) Only U.S. citizens, permanent residents and foreign nationals who have been resident in the United States for the three years immediately preceding the application deadline may apply.
APLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:
A complete application must include:
The Schomburg Center Scholars-in-Residence Application.
A 1500-word description of the proposed study.
Curriculum vitae (limit to 3 pages).
Names of references (long-term fellows must submit three recommendation letters; short-term fellows must submit a minimum of two letters). References will receive an e-mail instructing them how to upload their recommendations.
Fill out an application here.
DESCRIPTION OF STUDY:
In no more than 1500 words the applicant should provide a detailed description of the proposed study, including but by no means restricted to the following elements:
A statement of the topic under consideration with specific reference to the major questions, problems, and theses being investigated.
An outline of the plan for carrying out the study or project.
Discussion of the sources in the Schomburg Center and other research units of The New York Public Library that the applicant plans to use for the study and plans for examining them.
Description of research methods.
Applicant's competence in the use of any foreign languages needed to complete the study.
The place of the study in the applicant's overall research and writing program.
The significance of the study for the applicant's field and for the humanities in general.
The final objective and expected outcomes of the project. Plans for publications, lectures, exhibitions, teaching, and other vehicles of dissemination should be detailed. Fellows will be expected to share and discuss their research and writing with other scholars-in-residence in the weekly work-in-progress seminar during their residency.
SELECTION CRITERIA:
Applications for the Scholars-in-Residence Program will be reviewed by a Selection Committee consisting of five external reviewers, a rotating panel of accomplished scholars and writers with expertise across the fields of study covered by the fellowship. The Selection Committee is convened and chaired by the Director of the Scholars-in-Residence Program.
Fellows will be selected on the basis of the following criteria:
Relationship of the project to the resources of the Schomburg Center.
Qualifications of the applicant.
Quality and feasibility of the project plan.
Importance of the proposed project to the applicant's field and to the humanities.
Relationship of the project to the humanities.
Likelihood that the project will be completed successfully.
The provisions for making the results of the project available to scholars and to the public at large.
Applicants selected for the Program will be notified in late March.
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Black in Appalachia Initiative MONOLOGUE COMPETITION
Barter Theatre
DEADLINE: December 1, 2022
INFO: 5-7 monologues will be selected to be performed during Barter’s Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights (Jan./Feb. 2023 – date TBD)
It is our hope that by connecting Black playwrights (wherever they are located) with stories from Black Appalachian communities, we can:
Create monologues that can be developed into full-length plays
Create work that explores the Black Appalachian experience, both past and present
Establish and cultivate relationships with Black playwrights and other Black theatre artists
Give audiences accessibility to new perspectives on life in Appalachia
MONOLOGUE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Playwright must be Black.
Monologues must be set in Appalachia. (See link below for list of qualifying states/counties as defined by the Appalachian Regional Commission)
https://www.arc.gov/appalachian_region/CountiesinAppalachia.aspMonologues must be 5-7 minutes in length (190 words = 1 minute).
Monologues must be unpublished and not have had a professional production.
Monologues must be written using these prompts.
Monologues must be submitted electronically.
Please submit monologues to: tjackson@bartertheatre.com
bartertheatre.com/black-in-appalachia-initiative/#submissions