Free contest, Firehouse Theatre New American Plays Competition, top prize: $1000

Deadline: 30 June 2012

In keeping with the Firehouse Theatre’s mission of promoting new work by American artists, the Festival of New American Plays began in 2002 as a way to encourage and incubate new plays by established and emerging playwrights in the USA. It has become a grass-roots event with substantial involvement from the community, as hundreds of scripts submitted to the Playwriting Contest from all over the country are read by volunteer readers from the Greater-Richmond area. Each script is read twice (more if it needs a tiebreaker), and scripts with “two thumbs up” are passed on for further evaluation to an expert panel of judges, who then pick two finalists for a four-night Festival “showdown.” Members of the festival audience who have seen staged readings of both finalists’ work cast a vote for their favorite play, and the winner of the festival is chosen by the public. Festival winners receive cash prizes.

The Firehouse is accepting submissions for the 11th annual Festival of New American Plays. The 10th Annual Festival of New American Plays Finalists will be announced in April of 2012. More than 200 scripts were submitted this year from nearly every state in the country! Interested in submitting?

Rules for Submission

• Full length scripts only.

• Plays must not have been previously produced. Readings are acceptable if no admission was charged and actors read from the script.

• Submissions should be made in standard manuscript form and with no fancy binding. This means no discs, no e-mails. Please just use a binder clip to secure the script pages, no folders, no plastic covers, etc. All author information must be on a title page separate from the body of the manuscript and no reference to the author is permitted in the body of the script.

• Scripts must be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from a theater company or individual familiar with your work. Letters of recommendation do not need to be specific to the play submitted; they may be general recommendations of the playwrights work. All letters must be received with the script, not under separate cover. Scripts received without a letter will not be considered.

• Entries must be postmarked no later than June 30, 2012 but no earlier than January 1, 2012.

• Due to volume of mail, manuscripts cannot be returned.

• Two winners receive staged readings and prizes of $1,000 and $500. In the case of a tie, each winner will receive $750.

• Winners will be announced March 1, 2013.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For submissions: send submissions to Firehouse Theatre Project, 11th Festival of New American Plays, 1609 W. Broad St., Richmond, VA 23220

Website: http://www.firehousetheatre.org