Deadline: October 1, 2022
The Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival honors new American plays that provide dynamic performance opportunities for college-aged actors.
The festival endeavors both to recognize playwrights for their outstanding work and to provide a resource for universities across the country to identify dynamic plays with robust roles for college-aged actors for production at their institutions. The festival features both a full-length and short play division.
FULL LENGTH SUBMISSIONS
Seeking plays that have:
- A cast of primarily (or exclusively) characters in their teens and early twenties (15-25 years old).
- A mid- to large-sized cast (i.e., at least five actors, preferably at least ten).
- A running time of at least 80 minutes.
- Significant representation (in both number and quality) of roles for female-identifying actors.
- Dynamic, fully-drawn roles to challenge student actors.
- Thematic values that will speak to college-aged artists and audience members.
The festival also places a value on plays that have the potential to provide performance opportunities to actors from under-represented groups.
Please note: The Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival is specifically seeking plays in which the characters are in their teens and early twenties, not simply characters that could be played by actors in their teens and early twenties. The festival is not seeking plays with characters that are “ageless” or “any age.” Plays should be about characters experiencing late adolescence and early adulthood.
Full-length plays should not have had a previous full production. Workshops and readings are fine.
Finalists for the festival’s top prize will receive airfare and housing to participate in the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival on the campus of the Jeanine Larson Dobbins Conservatory of Theatre & Dance at Southeast Missouri State University in May of 2023. Staged readings of the finalists’ plays will be presented as part of the festival, and the winner of the prize will be announced at the end of the week-long event.
The winning full-length play will receive:
- A world premiere production in the 2023-2024 Dobbins Conservatory of Theatre & Dance theatre season.
- Consideration of the play for publication by Concord Theatricals, the world’s most significant theatrical company, comprising the catalogs of R&H Theatricals, Samuel French, Tams-Witmark and The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection.
- A meeting for the playwright with new play acquisition staff at Concord Theatricals.
SHORT PLAY SUBMISSIONS
Seeking plays that have:
- A cast of exclusively characters in their teens and twenties.
- Dynamic, fully-drawn roles to challenge student actors.
- A running time of 10-25 minutes.
- Thematic values that will speak to college-aged artists and audience members.
The festival also places a value on plays that have the potential to provide performance opportunities to female-identifying actors and actors from under-represented groups.
Plays should not have had a previous production under an Actors Equity agreement. Non-union productions, workshops, and readings are fine.
The five finalist short plays will receive:
- A staged reading at the 2023 Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival.
- Publication in the anthology Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival 2023: The Short Plays, published by Southeast Missouri University Press and made distributed nationwide through online and retail outlets.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Submissions for the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival should be submitted by October 1, 2022 at:
www.semo.edu/lanfordwilson
The submission form will request:
- Complete script
- Brief synopsis of the play (100-250 words)
- Character breakdown, including ages
- Author(s) bio (100-250 words)
- Development history (if applicable)
If you have any questions, please email the festival’s Artistic Director, Kitt Lavoie (klavoie@semo.edu).