Four Submission Opportunities for Playwrights

August 18, 2017 by James Hutchison | POST A COMMENT

The New American Theatre

Opportunity: Festival of New American One Act Plays
Location: Culver City, California, USA
Current Deadline: Extended Deadline: August 31, 2017 (11:59 pm)
Submission Fee: $10.00 per entry
Type of Contest: Short Plays no longer than 15 minutes
Restrictions: Must not have been produced in Los Angelas, California and not under option or scheduled for a professional production or publication at the time of submission.
Award: A selection of 8-12 semi-finalists will be performed in a Fall Marathon of One Act Plays. 5 to 8 of the semi-finalists will be selected to be presented in the Spring 2018 Festival. Finalists will be invited to be members of the New American Theatre Playwrights Circle.

For complete submission details check out The New American Theatre Web Site.

Toowoomba Repertory Theatre Society

Opportunity: Carnival of Flowers Toowomba Repertory Theatre Playing Writing Competition
Location: Toowomba, Queensland, Australia
Current Deadline: Entries must be received by September 30th, 2017
Submission Fee: $40.00 Australian
Type of Contest: One Acts running between 50 and 75 minutes
Restrictions: Australian Playwrights

Must be unpublished and never performed or workshopped.
Preference will be given to plays with a small cast size that can be simply staged on a small proscenium stage.

Award: Best Play $4,000 Australian. Second Best Play $2,000 Australian. Two winning plays will undergo a six month review process led by a professional dramaturge in order to provide input to the playwrights and assist in the further development of the scripts. Winning plays will be performed during the 2018 Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers for a ten night run.

For complete submission details check out the Toowoomba Repertory Theatre Society Web Page.

Därkhorse Drämatists

Opportunity: Write to the Heart – Love Themed Play Festival
Location: Binghamton, New York, USA
Current Deadline: December 6, 2017
Submission Fee: None listed
Type of Contest: One Acts 25 page maximum/10 page minimum. No minimum page count for 1 person shorts or monologues.
Restrictions: No exceedingly violent or pornographic material. Adult language allowed within reason. Maximum 3-4 characters in a limited setting with minimal props. Two submission per playwright. Plays may have had previous productions but must be unpublished.
Award: Plays will be mediated in a forum comprised of local playwrights, directors and actors to determine which will be produced.

For complete submission details check out the Därkhorse Drämatists Write to the Heart Web Site.

PlayFest Santa Barbara

Opportunity: Playwriting Competition
Location: Santa Barbara, California, USA
Current Deadline: October 1, 2017
Submission Fee: $25.00 per entry
Type of Contest: Full-length plays, musicals, translation and adaptations, and works for young audiences.
Restrictions: Must not have received a professional production. Plays must be written in English. Playwrights, composers and librettists may submit only one manuscript per festival year.
Award: Selected plays participate in the New Play Festival which is a celebration of new plays, including readings of plays by playwrights from Santa Barbara and beyond.

For complete submission and festival details check out the PlayFest Santa Barbara web site.

QUOTA gets London Production

March 29, 2017 by James Hutchison | POST A COMMENT

“All societies are based on codes of behaviour and when someone deviates from that code there has to be a way to handle the situation otherwise chaos would reign supreme, and we don’t want that now do we. We want everything nice and tidy. All the socks in the sock drawer and all the undies in the undie drawer.”

That’s a line from my play QUOTA. It’s what Dave Dixon gets told by Kathie, the Civic Census taker, after he gets flagged for corrective action.

I wrote QUOTA while I was doing a little research for another play about the internment camps that the Canadian government ran during World War One and World War Two.* It’s always bothered me that we were fighting dictatorships that put people in camps while we were doing the same thing. Of course our camps weren’t concentration camps but once you have a different set of laws and rules applied to one group in your society – how do you keep it from going to the extreme?

Maybe you keep it from going to the extreme by making sure the rule of law applies to everyone equally regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.

Of course that’s only if you believe that everyone is equal. Not everyone believes this. And if you’ve seen Avenue Q you know that we’re all a little bit racist. We’re all human and we make assumptions and have distorted beliefs about people and sometimes we’re not even aware of our own prejudice. But that’s a lot different than laws being enforced by a government that are intended to limit the rights and freedoms of a particular group simply because of of that group’s differences.

But governments are not composed of robots. Governments and Prime Ministers and Presidents and Kings and Dictators are all people. And so I have to wonder what kind of people are they? Are they good leaders? I think not if they allow such laws to be passed and enforced.

But what makes a good leader? I think good leaders don’t seek power for themselves but instead seek to empower others. Bad leaders are afraid of diversity. They’re afraid of others having power. They see the cup as half full and they want what’s in the cup all for themselves. And while I know there are lots of different definitions of leadership I think great leaders enlarge the world they don’t limit it. They share.

You know one of the purposes of theatre and story is to provoke discussion. Discussion about politics, morality, relationships, love, religion, and power. And comedy allows us to shine a light on attitudes and behaviours in a way that drama doesn’t. That’s why I wrote QUOTA. I wanted to take a look at how individuals go from being a member of society to becoming an identified minority and having their rights violated.

So, I’m excited to announce that the Sky Blue Theatre Company will be producing, my play, QUOTA as part of The British Theatre Challenge – Act II. The British Theatre Challenge is an annual international playwriting contest run by the Sky Blue Theatre Company and this year, in addition to the ten winning plays produced in December 2016, an additional six plays will be produced on Friday April 7, 2017 at the Lost Theatre in London, England. If you happen to be in London check it out.

Quota by James Hutchison

QUOTA is the story of Dave Dixon who – while looking for a job on-line – is interrupted by the Metro City Census Taker. This is unlike any census Dixon has ever taken and when he’s asked whether or not he was spanked as a child he refuses to answer. That causes the Census taker to call for police back up and Dixon finds himself being targeted for corrective action because of his unemployment and the fact that he’s left handed. When a 2 kilo bag of white sugar is found on the premises and Dixon is facing jail time for trafficking he has to make a moral choice between naming names and protecting himself.

Guilty by Pete Barrett

Guilty takes Alice Golding one step through the looking glass into a bizarre courtroom scene, peopled by men, where she is tried for her many failures: her failure to get on with her own mother, her neglect of her children, her failure to find a job and contribute to the family budget, her failure to maintain her looks and figure and the consumption of an entire cheesecake in one go, thereby robbing her family of a Sunday treat and leaving them bereft. Of course there can only be one sentence: life.

About Michael by Peter Anthony Fields

A first year high school English teacher meets with the school’s administrators for what he believes is his mid-term job evaluation. However, as the meeting progresses, he soon discovers that the evaluation is actually an interrogation…

Threatened Panda Fights Back by Rex McGregor

As the World Wildlife Fund’s poster boy for endangered animals, Ling enjoys a comfortable life full of adulation and all the bamboo he can eat. But when a rival species challenges him for the role, he risks losing everything.

Mother’s Ruin by Michelle McCormick

As new parents, life for Esther and Tom has become a continuous cycle of miscommunication and long waits for invitations that never arrive. Then one simple question threatens to change everything. ‘Where’s the baby?’

The Waiting Room by Steve Shapiro

This is the place where you wait between lives. Barbara and Helmut arrive separately and must be assessed to see if they have fulfilled their pre-incarnation pledges, and while The Girl and Dinesh negotiate a better life next time. One of them is destined to make a mark in history.

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Sky Blue Theatre strives to produce diverse and relevant works as well as being a hub of creativity and professional development for emerging artists.

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Lost Theatre is dedicated to promoting and developing young and emerging talent through regular productions, festivals, training, workshops and showcases in addition to year round education and outreach activities.

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* Internment in Canada – World War I & World War II

At the beginning of World War I the Government of Canada enacted the War Measures Act which gave the it the power to suspend and limit civil liberties as well as the right to incarcerate “enemy aliens”. Enemy Aliens were citizens of states at war with Canada and who were living in Canada during the war. The camps were operated from 1914 to 1920. Twenty-four camps housed 8,579 men which included 5,000 Ukrainians and 2009 Germans. The camps provided forced labour which was used to build infrastructure as well as some of Canada’s best-known landmarks such as Banff National Park.

During the Second World War 40 camps held an estimated 30,000 to 35,000 prisoners. This included Germans and Italians and after Pearl Harbor approximately 20,000 Japanese Canadians were taken from their homes on Canada’s West Coast without any charge or due process and placed in remote areas of eastern British Columbia. The Canadian Government stripped them of their property and pressured them to accept mass deportation after the war ended. Most of the Japanese Canadians that were placed in camps were Canadian Citizens.

Links & Sources:

Internment in Canada: The Canadian Encyclopedia

Controversy dogs exhibit on First World War internment: The Globe and Mail June 10, 2013

Parks Canada: Enemy Aliens, Prisoners of War: Canada’s First World War Internment Operations, 1914-1920

Interment of Japanese Canadians: The Canadian Encyclopedia

Japanese Canadian History – The War Years

WordWave 2016 or Death at Lake Tahoe

October 17, 2016 by James Hutchison | POST A COMMENT

So, why do we tell stories? Is it to entertain? To pass on wisdom? To contemplate life? I think it’s all those things. Stories help us to understand our place in the Universe. Stories give us context. They help us navigate life. If you don’t think story is important try and imagine a world without story. It doesn’t exist.

And so, I’m excited to announce that one of my stories, Death and the Psychiatrist, is going to be part of the 2016 WordWave Festival.

You can download a free copy of Death and the Psychiatrist by clicking on this link: Death and the Psychiatrist

[Read more…]

Five Playwriting Opportunities & Pumpkins

October 6, 2016 by James Hutchison | POST A COMMENT

You know I don’t get why playwriting festivals ask for blind submissions when they don’t accept braille as a submission format.

Bad joke? Yes. Of course that doesn’t mean I don’t have a few thoughts about festivals and their submission requirements.

But before I get to those here is the list of the playwriting festivals and opportunities I have included in this week’s blog:

Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum: Botanicum Seedlings – A Development Series for Playwrights
Tree City Playhouse: 10-Minute Play Competition
Sanguine Theatre Company: Project Playwright Festival
id Theater: Seven Devils Playwrights Conference
Ruby Slippers Theatre, the Vancouver Fringe Festival and Equity in Theatre present: Advance Theatre: New Works by Diverse Women

Further details and links to each festival can be found by scrolling down. In the meantime here are some of my thoughts about entry fees and having to submit never produced work.

The 2016 Port Elgin Pumpkin Fest Giant Vegetable Weigh-Off Competition!

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Moments, Dialogue and the North Park Playwrights Festival

September 29, 2016 by James Hutchison | 1 Comment

14th Annual North Park Playwrights Festival

My short comedy, Never Give Up, is one of 24 plays being presented at this year’s 14th Annual North Park Playwrights Festival in San Diego, California. The production is being directed by Dave Fremland and stars Gunnar Ramstrum as Nigel Davenport and Sam Goldstein as Todd Sparks.

Download a free copy of Never Give Up by clicking on this link: Never Give Up

Never Give Up is about playwright Nigel Davenport who has been entering the Short Cuts Playwriting Festival for years. He’s never won, in spite of submitting hundreds of plays. When Nigel gets a call from Artistic Director Todd Sparks, he thinks his luck has finally changed, until he meets with Todd and Todd tells him that they’d like him to stop submitting to the Festival because he’s a terrible playwright. In fact, three members of this year’s reading committee resigned, two were treated for depression and one tried to commit suicide all because of Nigel’s plays. But instead of giving up this only inspires Nigel to try harder and figure out how to write an award winning play that will win the festival.

The North Park Playwrights Festival isn’t a contest. Instead out of the 260 submissions in this year’s festival 24 directors chose the plays they wanted to direct.

Jeff Bushnell and Summer Golden started the North Park Playwright Festival and built the North Park Vaudeville and Candy Shoppe with the intention of providing a small theatre in order to produce new plays.

“The festival provides a platform for brand new, short (ten minute), plays written by playwrights from around the world. Over the past twelve years more than 440 new plays have been produced. We encourage new directors and actors to become involved in theater through the festival as well. Through the North Park Playwright Festival over ninety playwrights, directors, and actors each year are able to showcase their talents.”

Week 1

September 30th to October 2nd

To Clever by Half by John F. Levin, San Francisco, CA
Empress of Boca by Esta Fisher, Jackson Heights, NY
Sometime by Jayme Kilburn, Ithaca, NY
The Picture Window, by Dwayne Yancey, Fincastle, VA
Character Assassination by Robert O’Connell, Coral Springs, FL
The Confession by Jerry Levitin, Napa CA

Week 2

October 7th to 9th

Waiting For the Witch by David Brendan Hopes, Asheville, NC
Dangling Participles by Jeffrey Neuman, Denver, CO
Mrs. Smasa’s Brunch by Stanley Brown, Los Angelas, CA
Where is Santa Claus? by Lewis Shilane, Joplin, MO
Merry Maids by Connie Schindewolf, Bradenton, FL
Never Give Up by James Hutchison, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Week 3

October 14th to 16th

Cocktail Party by Thomas J. Misuraca, Tarzana, CA
Ava Turns Fifty by Michael F. Bruck, New York, NY
Sentimental Value by John Molina, Chula Vista, CA
Charlie and Rose by Diane Haring, Huntington, NY
Always by Stephen Cooper, Longboat Key, FL
Don’t You Think You Need a Sweater? by Lojo Simon, Laguna Beach, CA

Week 4

October 21st to 23rd

The Final Round by Patrick Castaneda, San Diego, CA
Nano Romance by George J. Bryjak, Bloomingdale, NY
Midway by Colleen Shaddox, East Haddam, CT
Ledges by Joseph Vitale, Denville, NJ
The Horses In Central Park by Paul Hufker, Union City, NJ
Audition by Richard Chin, St. Paul, MN

Writing Dialogue

Last year I read Seven Guitars by August Wilson. He’s a fine writer and a good writer to read. One of the ways you learn about your craft is to simply read other writers.

If you’re a playwright read plays. If you’re a screenwriter read screenplays. If you’re a novelist read novels. But of course that doesn’t mean that a playwright shouldn’t read novels or screenplays or that a novelist shouldn’t read other forms of fiction. It’s all story and it’s all good and when you read work by other writers you get to experience different styles.

That’s important because sometimes you’ll get advice like – you should keep your dialogue short. Don’t let your characters speak more than a few words because that’s not how people talk. But that just doesn’t ring true to me. Yes, you should cut out what isn’t needed. But not everything needs to be short.

I mean – think of it this way – you can paint with water colours or you can paint with oil. Both are paint and both create a finished work but the feel of the work is different because of the materials used. And while you can use short sentences when you write dialogue that’s just one style. There are plenty of writers who give their characters lots to say. George Bernard Shaw (Saint Joan, Pygmalion, and Major Barbara) comes to mind as an example from the past and Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, A Few Good Men, and The Newsroom) comes to mind as a contemporary example.

How you write dialogue is going to be influenced by your style and the needs of the story and the type of character in the story. And while stage dialogue needs to ring true to the ear – it is in no way – the way people talk. It is a representation of how people talk. After all, Shakespeare is performed all the time and no one talks like that – me thinketh.

So if your character has something to say – let them say it. If they can say it in five words fine. But if it takes a hundred words there’s nothing wrong with that. So, long as what they say has truth and moves the story forward or reveals character.

Here’s a beautiful example of a monologue from Seven Guitars by August Wilson where one of the characters, Canewell, sums up his feelings about love.

CANEWELL: I always did believe in love. I felt like if you don’t believe in love you may as well not believe in nothing. Even love that ain’t but halfway is still love. And that don’t make it no less cause its only coming one way. If it was two ways it still be the same amount of love. Just like say I loved you and you didn’t love me back. I can still say I’m all filled up with love for Vera. I go walking down the street people can see that. They don’t know what to call it but they can see something going on. Maybe they see a man who like he satisfied with life and that make him walk more better. Make him walk like he got a million dollars in his pocket. If I loved you and this time you loved me back. I don’t see where my love for you can get more bigger that it already was. Unless I walk like I got two million dollars. Sometimes people don’t count it if you ain’t loved back. But I count it all the same. Some women make their bed up so high don’t nobody know how to get to it. I know you ain’t like that. You know how to make your bed up high and turn you lamp down low. That’s why Floyd don’t want to lose you. I think you and Floyd ought to go ahead and see what you can make of it.

Act II Scene Seven – Seven Guitars by August Wilson

Opportunities for Playwrights

Play Lab at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference

Deadline: October 20, 2016
Location: Valdez, Alaska, USA
Submission Fee: No Entry Fee Listed
Type: 20 minutes to 2 hours
Restrictions: The play should not have received a professional production. Readings and amateur productions are acceptable.
Each playwright may submit a maximum of one script.
No musicals.
Award: Selected plays receive public readings, with both public and private feedback sessions led by theatre professionals. Authors must register for the Conference and be in attendance for their reading. This year’s conference runs from June 11-17th.
Note: One submission per author.

For complete submission details and festival information refer to the Play Lab 2017 Last Frontier Theatre Conference Web Site.

Theatre InspiraTO’s 12th Annual Playwriting Contest

Deadline: November 20, 2016
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Submission Fee: No Entry Fee
Type: 10 Minute Play Festival
Restrictions: This year’s creative challenge: Grow Up. The theme “Grow Up”must be an integral part of the play. The story can be a comedy, a drama, a parody, absurd or anything in between but it must be written in English.
No musicals.
The contest is open to anyone without geographic or age restrictions. Submissions must be made online.
Each playwright may submit a maximum of one script.
Award: Production from June 1-10, 2017 at the 12 Annual InspiraTO Festival in Toronto. First prize $500.00 Canadian.
Note: Between 18 to 24, ten minute plays will be selected and performed.
The Cover page should have the title of the play, the playwright’s name and the list of characters. The pages should be numbered. The format should be easy to read. We accept previously produced plays, but we don’t accept plays that have been produced in previous InspiraTO Festivals.

For complete submission details and festival information refer to the Theatre InspiraTO’s 12th Playwriting Contest Web site.

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In the Moment Gallery: The Contrasts Photography Show

When you write a play you’re trying to capture a moment of truth. You’re trying to reveal something about what it means to be alive.

A photograph can do the same thing.

A photograph can capture a moment in time. But what it captures isn’t reality it’s a reflection of reality. All art reflects the world in some form. Photography, painting, music, writing, and dance are all forms of expression and each is a reflection of the world. The form and content of each kind of art is as varied and diverse as the artists who create them.

This weekend there’s a photography show being put on by my friend Ann-Louise Good. It’s a show of contrasts and she’ll have a number of photos on display from the thousands she’s shot over the years. The images are grouped according to theme. Here are just two of the photographs she’ll have at the show and the story behind them:

Buoyancy: The shores of Dibba in Oman. Why is this photograph so “busy”? It is full of vehicles and boats and it appears to be low tide. It is evening prayer time at the mosque. The last prayers of the day just before the sun sets. I love the story this photo tells and the feelings it brings back from experiencing the true Muslim faith during my time in the Middle East. Peaceful.

Storm: St. Andrews Scotland is famous for golf, but it also boasts some of the most spectacular stormy skylines. Going to visit the hallowed links of St. Andrews made for some amazing photos of a stormy day rolling in across the ocean.

You can check out Ann-Louise Good’s website to see some of the other images she has available for purchase: In the Moment Gallery.

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The Contrasts Photography Show @ The Alberta College of Art and Design

Friday September 30th, – 6:00 pm – 9:oo pm
Saturday October 1st, – 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday October 2nd, 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm

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