Call for Pirandellian Dramaturgies, 3rd edition – Comical and Grotesque Short Stories to Drama

Website

Deadline: January 31, 2024

PSA, the Journal of the Pirandello Society of America (www.pirandellosociety.org/psa-journal), seeks submissions of short dramatic pieces (5 to 30 minutes of expected performance time) inspired by Luigi Pirandello’s short stories, for publication in the next or future issues.

Scripts should be previously unpublished and unproduced for the stage except for staged readings.

Given that the previous issue highlighted more serious topics, this one will privilege short stories that have a comical and/or grotesque tone.

An essential requirement is that proposed dramaturgies draw inspiration from Pirandello’s numerous short stories, for example those recently translated and available at www.pirandellointranslation.org

Dramaturgies could take several shapes such as:
1. adaptations for the stage of a single short story
2. adaptations that combine two or three stories
3. dramatic development of a section of a short story
4. monologues/dialogues of characters who appear in the short stories
5. dramatic situations that entail the reading/recitation of passages from the short stories

Importantly, each play should stand on its own without requiring previous knowledge of the adapted short story or its characters.

Plays that simply reference Pirandello by “being metatheatrical” won’t be considered.

Dramaturgies should also avoid adapting the following, already used for theatre in some form by Pirandello himself, specifically “The Doctor’s Duty,” “The License,” “The Jar,” “The Imbecile,” “Sicilian Limes,” “Think It Over, Giacomino!,” “A Character’s Tragedy,” “Death Is Upon Him,” “The Changeling,” “It’s Nothing Serious,” “Farewell, Leonora!,” “The Lord of the Ship,” “Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza, her Son-in law,” “The Friend to the Wives,” “Interviews with Characters,” and “Characters.”

Instead, inspiration should derive from any of the other stories, already translated on the website www.pirandellointranslation.org or read in other translations, that did not find a dramatic form yet.

Please e-mail submissions as Word document or PDF
by January 31, 2024 to Stefano Boselli, PSA Theatre and Performance Editor: Stefano.Boselli@unlv.edu.

If accepted, authors will be notified by e-mail by May 31, 2024, and scripts will be published on the next issue (XXXVI, 2023–24) or scheduled for publication in following issues.