TheaterMania Launches Young Playwrights Contest
TheaterMania is thrilled to kick off the first annual TheaterMania Young Playwrights Contest, a showcase of one-act works by talented high school students. The program is presented entirely online and will end with live-streamed readings. This series is meant to honor young peoples' interests and efforts in playwriting and to give them a platform to share their works with the public.
How It Works
High School students submit their plays for consideration through our online form.
Plays will be reviewed by our panel of judges, who represent a variety of industry perspectives. The judges will determine one first place winner and two runners-up. There will be an additional five honorable mentions.
The winner's play will be read on a live stream platform by a cast of actors selected by TheaterMania or provided by the winner. The winner, runners-up, and honorable mentions will be listed on TheaterMania.com and mentioned on our social media platforms.
Playwrights will maintain ownership of their works. The playwright gives TheaterMania the permission to livestream the reading of the winning play, which may then live on in perpetuity on TheaterMania's YouTube channel and in TheaterMania's Facebook Videos if TheaterMania so chooses. There are NO fees to enter.
Rules and Regulations
1. There can be no more than five actors in the play. Actors may play multiple roles, however. The actors plus the playwright or a director will be visible to the viewing public. The director or playwright will read the stage notes and cue the actors to speak their parts.
2. The one-act play should be no longer than 10 to 12 pages. Plays that are longer will immediately be disqualified.
3. Scripts must be submitted in play format in a standard font and use a font size no smaller than 12 (Courier New, size 12, is recommended).
4. The playwright must attest that the play is an original work and that the likeness to anyone real or fictional is strictly a coincidence and that they are the sole owner and creator.
5. The play may have been submitted to other festivals and contests.
6. The plays must be submitted in English.
7. Entrants must be enrolled in a high school located in the United States at the time the plays are chosen.
8. Plays should avoid topics and language deemed offensive to the general public including but not limited to:
— offensive racial language
— disparagement of political parties
— incitements to violence
— disparagement of people including but not limited to religious affiliations, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and gender identification
— profanity
To read the official Contest Rules and Regulations, click here.
Key Dates
Submissions will be accepted May 1-May 30, 2020. The winner, runners-up, and honorable mentions will be contacted via email and phone on June 15, 2020, and must respond by June 19, 2020. The reading, which is optional to the playwright, will occur on a date mutually convenient to the winner and TheaterMania.
How Plays Are Judged
Plays will be judged on originality and creativity.
Prizes
The winning play may be read over live stream through TheaterMania's YouTube and Facebook channels by actors or a cast provided by the play's author. The videos may then live on TheaterMania's Facebook Video and YouTube channels in perpetuity.
The winner will also receive a credit from the Barrow Group for an online course in playwriting designed for teenagers.
The winner, runners-up, and honorable mentions will get notes from the judges.
The winner, runners-up, and honorable mentions will be announced on TheaterMania.com and on social media.
Sponsors
TheaterMania would like to thank the following organizations who have contributed their time and energy into making this contest possible.
The Barrow Group
Founded in 1986 on the belief that stories have the power to transform lives for the better, The Barrow Group (TBG) strives to help people connect with their humanity through a greater understanding of oneself, others, and the world. In our 10,000-square-foot arts center in midtown Manhattan, we provide an inclusive home for artists and audiences hungry to create and experience intimate, human stories that are authentically told and socially, politically, spiritually relevant. Each year, we enrich thousands of lives through affordably priced theatrical productions in our 99-seat theater, developmental readings, and community events in our 40-seat theater, and performing arts workshops for youth and adults in our studios.
SOOP
Since its inception in 1998, The SOOP Theatre Company (acronym for "Seat Of Our Pants" – appropriately named, since we seem to be "flying" by it most of the time) has been committed to the individual and their needs as a whole artist, whether you are an actor, director, playwright, musician, dancer – with our SAME goals in mind: to do strong, passionate, invested work. Now producing in Westchester at The 530 Studios in Pelham, New York, as well as New York City venues, we are proud to offer two distinct, theatrical experiences: SOOP Acting Company and SOOP Theatre Arts Repertory.
Broadway and Beyond Theatricals
Broadway & Beyond Theatricals (BBT) is dedicated to the distribution and creation of quality branded theatrical content for traditional and non-traditional venues throughout North America and beyond.
BBT's InHouse booking division delivers quality productions tailored to a venue's size and budget. BBT's Custom Content division offers commercial producers and IP stakeholders strategic management, consulting services, and distribution solutions, while producing quality theatrical content in New York and for the road.
