PlayFest 2019 New Play Submissions

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PlayFest 2019 will present readings of seven new plays during two weekends at the beginning of November 2019 in the Margeson Theater at Orlando Shakes. Each reading receives about 20 hours of rehearsal time with professional actors, director and a public reading–all with the playwright in attendance.

The seven plays will be selected from solicited and unsolicited scripts. We welcome submissions from agents and from PlayFest alumni as well as ten-page samples from unsolicited writers. If you are interested in submitting a play, please read the following guidelines carefully.

WHAT TYPES OF PLAYS ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
We generally look for scripts with cast sizes of 1–8. We are especially interested in scripts that speak to the issues that our audiences are experiencing right now. Past PlayFest plays have dealt with issues of racism, autism, gender, Alzheimer’s, immigration, etc., sometimes set in contemporary times and sometime set in an historical context. Our Shakespeare and classical productions deal with “timeless issues” and we like for our new plays to deal with modern “issues of our times.” We seek plays of various genres by diverse writers with diverse characters.

“NEW PLAY” ELIGIBILITY
For a script to be eligible for inclusion in PlayFest 2019, a play does NOT have to be a world premiere, but it must be a “new” play. For our purposes, that means:

• The play CANNOT have had more than two previous professional (AEA) productions before PlayFest 2019.
• The play CANNOT have been published.
• The play CANNOT have had an AEA production in New York City or Orlando.
• Most importantly, the author must still be developing and working on the script. They must be available to join us in Orlando for one of the two PlayFest weeks.

TEN-PAGE SAMPLE OF UNSOLICITED PLAY:
If you are a playwright with no prior working relationship with Orlando Shakes and no agent, then you should submit a TEN-PAGE SAMPLE. (Do NOT send the full play but pick ten pages to submit along with the rest of the packet.) See below.

Please send to Submissions@orlandoshakes.org between January 5 and January 19, 2019. Please note: Due to overwhelming interest, we will cap unsolicited submissions at the first 100 received.

• A brief bio about you (100-150 words)
• A brief synopsis of the play (100-200 words)
• A brief character breakdown (1-2 sentences that describe each character)
• 10 pages from the script
• You will receive a return email when your submission has been catalogued.
• We plan to request full-length scripts from these samples by March 1, 2019.
• Please send us your BEST consecutive ten pages, not necessarily the first ten. We want to be able to get a strong sense of your use of language and dialogue to tell your story. We do not have the staff necessary to read full unsolicited scripts, but we are excited to read your best 10 pages and will consider asking for your full script.

All submissions should be emailed as PDF electronic submissions. Please send to: Submissions@orlandoshakes.org.
SOLICITED PLAYS or PLAYS FROM PLAYFEST ALUMNI OR AGENTS:
If you have an agent, please have your agent send a query or one script to Submissions@orlandoshakes.org.

If you are a PlayFest alumni or have another working relationship with Orlando Shakes, then please send your play to Submissions@orlandoshakes.org.

Please send only one play per author. If you are debating which play to send, please read “What Types of Plays We Are Looking For?” above or send a query to Submissions@orlandoshakes.org.

Please send by February 1 (sooner is better):

A brief bio about writer
A two-three sentence synopsis of play
A basic character breakdown
An electronic copy of the play
Our goal is to select 15–20 semi-finalists by March 20, 2019 and the seven PlayFest 2019 Finalist scripts by May 1, 2019.