East Village Chronicles, Volume 10 - April 2014 - seeking new plays

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Deadline - Friday, December 27, 2013

Metropolitan Playhouse, New York's OBIE Award-winning explorer of America's Theatrical Heritage, is currently accepting submissions for new plays inspired by the life and history of New York's Lower East Side.

Submissions will be evaluated by Metropolitan's artistic staff, and we will produce up to 10 of the submitted plays in April 2014, as part of our 5th Annual East Village Theater Festival. As in prior years, the plays selected will pertain to a chosen theme. For Volume 10, plays should respond to Justice as it relates to life in the East Village of today and in eras past.  (See below for more information.)

Submission Deadline:
Completed scripts must be RECEIVED, by mail or e-mail, by 5:00 pm Friday, December 27, 2013.

Metropolitan Playhouse
220 E 4th Street
New York, NY 10009

EVC10@metropolitanplayhouse.org

The Festival

East Village Chronicles, Vol. 10 is the 10th seasonal festival of new, one-act plays that celebrate and explore the varied history and eclectic culture that have defined Manhattan's Lower East Side (in all its permutations).  Combined into two, distinct evenings of short plays, which run on alternating nights over three weeks, the presentations will include a variety of styles and tones, unified by their being clearly related to life in the theater's neighborhood.

Metropolitan Playhouse will produce the plays on our 3/4 thrust stage in our 51 seat theater at 220 E 4th Street.

The plays will be directed by directors engaged by Metropolitan to coordinate and rehearse the entire festival.

The plays will be performed by a core company of actors, cast specifically for the festival, each of whom will perform in at least two festival plays.  The cast of any given play will be drawn from this core company, and therefore anyone cast must be suitable for more than one play.  Because we are forming a company, while playwrights' input is highly desired, final decisions remain with Metropolitan's artistic staff.

The Theme for 2014: Justice

The Chronicles plays have been connected each year in that they have focused on a certain topic, theme, or timeline.  Selecting plays that are inspired by some such organizing principle helps to give the festival shape and to enrich the experience for audience members.  (See * below for further discussion of the theme idea.)

This year, the Chronicles will be devoted to Justice.  We believe this theme is especially resonant within the context of our national conversation and the shifting social paradigms within the neighborhood.  In our neighborhood, particularly with its history of immigration and challenges to mainstream lifestyle, longstanding family businesses and residents continue to leave the neighborhood they once created, while newcomers have set up and changed their minds in the course of a year.  As background to these real changes are the subtle relationships of each resident to the notion of right and rights as a citizen, a member of a community, and a human being.

Playwrights are encouraged to respond directly, indirectly, and creatively to this idea; how the plays relate to the notion of "Justice" is up to the playwright.

Technical Guidelines
We are seeking plays of no more than 30 minutes that can be played by 5 or fewer actors.
The plays will be presented with at least three others in a given evening, and as a consequence, should not require elaborate set or  properties.

Performance Dates:   April 14 - May 4, 2014

Theater:
Metropolitan Playhouse
220 E 4th Street

Questions:
Alex Roe
Artistic Director, Metropolitan Playhouse
212 995 8410
connect@metropolitanplayhouse.org


* Interviews from nytheatre.com regarding past festivals and the selection of themes may be found at:
http://www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/Interviewevc1.htm , and
http://www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/Interviewevc2.htm