One-Act Plays: Vermont Actors’ Repertory Theatre Seventh Annual Nor’Eastern Play Writing Contest

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NOTE: only for residents of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

This is the seventh year of premiered staged readings of three winning one-act plays in showcase at the Brick Box Theatre housed in the beautiful Paramount Theatre in downtown Rutland, Vermont.  Vermont Actors’ Repertory Theatre is in its eighth season. The Nor’Eastern Showcase winners will receive an intense day and a half of work on each play and two nights lodging with our sponsor at the Holiday Inn: Rutland/Killington.

The Nor’Eastern Showcase performance dates for this year will again be in May.  Each script goes through a rigorous screening process of three readers.

The scripts with the highest scores are submitted to a second panel, and then the finalists are read by a single reader who then selects the three scripts to be showcased.

Guidelines

This contest is open to playwrights of all ages and experience who are residents of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

One-act plays must be able to be read in showcase in 30 to 45 minutes.

Readers are instructed to disqualify plays that are, or appear to be, longer.

Submissions must be original, unpublished, one-act plays.  Plays that have had staged readings may be submitted, however, plays that have received Vermont productions or readings may not.

Legal clearance of materials not in the public domain is the full responsibility of the playwright.

Individual playwrights may submit a maximum of two (2) entries per year.
The author will maintain all literary rights to his or her own material.

All submissions are judged blind. We require four (4) copies with four (4) cover pages:

All four (4) with the title of the play, BUT ONLY ONE with the author’s name, address, e-mail & phone numbers.

If you would like your scripts returned, you MUST include an S.A.S. mailing envelope covering the FULL return mailing costs with your submission.  If no S.A.S.E. is included, your scripts will be recycled.

Plays must be processed, page numbered, and securely bound in an ably bound soft cover, in standard professional play format.  Write to Samuel French Inc., 45 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10010-2751 for their format guidelines, or copy them from www.vcu.edu/artweb/playwriting/format.html on line.

All submissions will be handled with care.  However, Vermont Actors’ Repertory Theatre assumes no responsibility for lost or damaged scripts.

Submission fees:  Following the guidelines of the Dramatists Guild of America there is no entry fee.

Scripts are not accepted on-line due to the costs of printing.

Mail four (4) copies of your script(s) to:

Nor’Eastern Play Writing Contest,
Vermont Actors’ Repertory Theatre,
PO Box 580, Rutland, Vermont 05702-0580.

Deadline for submissions is November 15, 2012, notification of winners will be March 5, 2013 and the staged readings in Showcase will be in May, 2013, with playwrights expected to be there one night early for rehearsals.