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Saturday, November 11, 2017

ATHE Award for Excellence in Playwriting

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The Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) is pleased to announce the fourth year of the ATHE Award for Excellence in Playwriting. The award honors a new play marked by sophisticated and nuanced storytelling, with the potential to make a major artistic impact on contemporary theatre.
Plays must have been written during the two years preceding the upcoming national conference (August 2018) by playwrights engaged with an institution of higher education (be it student, faculty, artist in residence, guest artist, etc.) during that time period. Only full-length plays, in Samuel French Playwriting Format, may be nominated for this award. Self-nominations and nominations from ATHE members are permitted. Only one play may be submitted per playwright in any given year. The plays can be produced or unproduced, but must be unpublished.
Qualifying plays should be submitted to email:  aepsubmissions@gmail.com. No submission fees are required. The winning playwright is expected to attend the ATHE Conference and participate in a development workshop and staged reading of the play. The conference takes place August 1-5, 2018 in Boston, MA. The playwright will receive conference registration, four nights in the conference hotel, $500 towards travel expenses (reimbursement), and a one-year membership in the Dramatists Guild. Additionally, the winner will receive a plaque at the annual ATHE Awards Celebration and attend a reception. 

View a list of past awardees here

Submission Guidelines

  • Electronic submissions are required. Word, PDF, and Rich Text formats preferred.
  • Samuel French script formatting required.
  • Although we do permit the submission of musicals, the limitations of staff and resources will make it difficult for us to produce such material.
  • We do not accept screenplays.
  • Your play must not include material that you do not have permission to use.
  • Your play must not be previously published.
  • Previous production of your script is allowed 
  • Do not submit a play that is incomplete, unfinished, or a rough draft. Send us the entire completed play.
  • The ATHE Award for Excellence in Playwriting committee has no problem with you submitting your play to other competitions simultaneously.
  • Plays must be full-length. The rule of thumb is that plays under an hour are not full length. 
  • The screening for the award will be done by blind reading. Therefore we would request that names not be put on each page of the manuscript, but ONLY on the cover page. The readers for the award will not receive the cover page. 
  • Qualifying plays should be submitted to email:  aepsubmissions@gmail.com
Please include:
  • A Cover sheet with the name of the play, your name as you expect to see it on publicity material, and contact information.
  • A brief synopsis of the play
  • A rough casting breakdown (3M, 4W)
  • Brief descriptions of the characters
  • Pertinent production notes
Please submit here: aepsubmissions@gmail.com. For further information contact Charlene Donaghy at aepsubmissions@gmail.com or cdonaghy@unomaha.edu.
Deadline: November 12, 2017.

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