Kids with Guns - call for submissions

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Call for Submissions 2012

Kids with Guns is looking for new plays and musicals to produce in the 2012 season! We are a collaborative production company who partners with emerging playwrights to create and present new works in New York City.
How do we choose work?

Our curatorial process renews each year with a call for script submissions that we distribute to our own network of artists, along with many NYC-based writers programs. Last year, 80 emerging playwrights submitted excerpts from their unproduced full-length plays. Our literary team reads these excerpts, then in late spring we request full-length scripts from authors whose work resonates with us most.

Throughout the rest of the calendar year, our literary team reads these full submissions and attends workshops and readings around New York City to familiarize ourselves with these new voices. In the 4th quarter of the year, we interview the finalists and select a project for the following season.
What kind of plays or musicals are you looking for?

The answer to this question evolves over time, but we can tell you a few of the deciding factors that made us pick Anna Moench and her play, The Pillow Book for our 2011 season:

The play itself is startlingly different from anything else we read. On the surface it’s a simple story about a modern couple deciding whether or not to have a child. Almost immediately, however, the script’s unusual narrative structure takes you on an adventure that spans time and geography: an Upper West Side Apartment, a hospital waiting room years ago, the Sahara, a mountain in Colorado, and so forth. The characters dutifully maintain their integrity while their life circumstances make epic shifts. And despite its ambitious narrative style, the script is economically written, the characters and their stories have clear arcs, and the story ends as simply and perfectly as it begins.

From a production point of view, we saw opportunities for choreography, a set that creates itself on stage, and a score composed especially for this project. In essence, all opportunities to challenge ourselves and our favorite collaborators to try something completely new.

And finally, we picked Anna’s play as much as we picked her as a playwright with whom we hope to have a long-term relationship. We’ve seen and read her work; we love it; and we have every reason to believe she will enjoy a long and prosperous career in theater.
Let’s get down to brass tacks

Playwrights may only enter one play for consideration for our 2012 season. Format all written materials as PDF documents with 1-inch borders, 12pt font.

Format your files carefully using the following guidelines:

Script/book excerpt

* Must include a title page
* Must be formatted using a 12pt font with 1-inch borders on all 4 sides
* Must include 10 pages or less of script/book/lyrics. So, your document page count will total 11 when including your title page
* We prefer PDF documents, but accept .doc, .docx, and .rtf files as well
* Very important! Name your document using the following format. Note that the marks between words are hyphens, not underscores. (If your document is not a PDF file, please substitute the appropriate extension): Your-Name-Play-Title-10p.pdf

CV/resume/bio

* Must be formatted using a 12pt font with 1-inch borders on all 4 sides
* Must be only 1 page in length
* Again, we prefer PDF documents, but accept .doc, .docx, and .rtf files as well
* Name your file using the following format: Your-Name-cv.pdf

MP3 files (musicals only)

* Must be in .mp3 format
* Must be 6MB or less (Try saving the file at a lower quality setting if it’s too big)
* Name your file using the following format: Your-Name-Name-Of-Song.mp3

Please fill out the form below and click “Submit” by 11:59pm EST Sunday, March 13, 2011.

In the meantime, get to know us better here:
kidswithguns.com
facebook.com/kwgnyc
twitter.com/kwgnyc

We encourage questions. Email us at inquiries [at] kidswithguns.com, especially if you experience any technical difficulty.
FAQ:

Q: Do you only produce works by NYC-based writers?
A: So far, yes, but we’re excited to break that pattern!

Q: Can I submit the same play I sent last year?
A: We would definitely prefer to read something new!

Q: How many plays can I submit?
A: Just one.

Q: Any cast size limitations?
A: Nope. We think larger casts are more fun, but we’ve done small casts, too!

Q: Do you do musicals?
A: We want to! If you have a completed musical you’d like to submit for consideration, please upload a 10 page excerpt of book and/or lyrics and an mp3 of a recorded song using the form below

Q: What do you mean by “new” plays/musicals?
A: We’re looking for plays and musicals which have not already enjoyed a full production, though staged readings are okay. Please submit only completed works. Works in progress will not be considered at this time.

Q: What constitutes a full-length play/musical?
A: Gosh. Not less than 60 pages, right?

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