Contests, Festivals, and Showcases

Contests are a good way to get your work presented to a large and diverse audience. Many notable modern playwrights gained national and international recognition as a result of winning contests.

It's also a way to get diverse scripts out there. There are full-length play contests, one-act festivals, 10-minute festivals, radio play contests, and even a one-page playwriting competition (contact Cortland Jessup, Lamia Ink!, P.O. Box 202, Prince St. Station, New York City, NY 10012 - sorry, they have no web page that I'm aware of).

Actually, there are hundreds of playwriting contests, festivals, and showcases going on all over the world. The 1999 Writer's Market lists 113 under the category of Playwriting and Scriptwriting. Here's just a sampling:

• Annual West Coast Ten-Minute Play Contest

• Actors Theatre of Louisville National Ten-Minute Play Contest and Humana Festival of New American Plays

• Northwest Playwrights Guild Competitions and Script Opportunities

• International Radio Playwriting Competition 1999

• Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays

• Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival

• TADA! Annual One-Act Play Competition

• Cleveland Public Theatre New Plays Festival

• Pioneer Drama Service's Shubert Fendrich Memorial Playwriting Contest

• Hemingway Play Writing Competition

• Alleyway Theatre's Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition

• Northern Michigan University's Mildred & Albert Panowski Playwriting Award

• The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's Lois and Richard Rosenthal New Play Prize

As with any script submission, check the criteria and make sure you're sending something the contest or festival is looking for. Don't send a full-length play to a one-act contest, or heavy drama to a comedy contest.

Remember, entering contests can get expensive. In addition to the postage costs, a lot of contests charge an entry fee, from $1 to $35 or more. Be sure to contact the festival ahead of time and request submission guidelines so you know exactly what you need to do to submit correctly. Contests are usually strict when it comes to doing things the right way and on time.

In the end, someone has to be awarded the prize, so why not you? Good luck!

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