Actors Theatre of Louisville

Guidelines

The guidelines for the National Ten-Minute Play Contest recently changed!  Please read the following policies carefully before submitting your play. 

Beginning in 2011, we are redirecting the focus of the Contest toward the primary production opportunity for ten-minute plays at Actors Theatre: The Apprentice/Intern Tens. An annual event that takes place in January, the A/I Tens consist of a bill of 8-10 world premiere ten-minute plays, fully produced in Actors’ Victor Jory Theatre and performed by our Apprentice Company of young actors.

As a result of this refocusing and our individual programming needs, Actors Theatre of Louisville and City Theatre of Miami will no longer co-sponsor the National Ten-Minute Play Contest, though each theatre will separately continue its commitment to finding and producing excellent ten-minute plays, and getting to know the work of writers around the country. Playwrights who wish to submit a ten-minute play to be considered for City Theatre’s Summer Shorts Festival should visit www.citytheatre.com for more information.

What’s Different?

• Characters in submitted plays should be in the age range 18-28.
• Submissions will be limited to the first 500 scripts we receive each year.
• In order to level the playing field, scripts will only be accepted during a focused submission window of September 1-November 1.  Scripts sent outside this window will no longer be accepted. Please do not send your script before September 1!
• If your play is received after we’ve hit the 500-script mark, you will be notified.
• Entries will be acknowledged by postcard in December. Playwrights will be notified of their finalist or non-finalist status the following summer.

And, As Ever:

• Each playwright may submit only one script—send us your best!
• We are unable to accept electronic submissions.
• No scripts will be returned.
• Each script must be no more than ten pages long.  (We start counting pages after the title page and character list, if applicable.)
• Previously submitted plays, plays that have received an Equity production, musicals, children’s shows, and any unsolicited longer one-act or full-length plays are not accepted and will not be returned nor receive a response. Plays that have received Equity waiver showcase productions are eligible.
• Each manuscript must be typed and individually bound or stapled.
• Title page must include the playwright’s name, address, phone number and e-mail address.
• The volume of scripts submitted hampers our ability to comment individually on each work, so we do not offer criticism.
• All ten-minute plays will be considered for the Heideman Award ($1000)* and production in the Apprentice/Intern Tens, an annual event in the winter.
• Playwrights must be citizens or permanent residents of the USA.

*The Heideman Award was established in 1979. Made possible by the late Ted Heideman, a Louisvillian, the $1,000 cash prize is bestowed annually upon the winner of the National Ten-Minute Play Contest (1990 – present).

Details

Next Submission window

September 1 – November 1, 2012 (Postmark dates)

Address Submissions to:

National Ten-Minute Play Contest
Actors Theatre of Louisville
316 West Main Street
Louisville, KY 40202-4218

For more information about City Theatre’s Summer Shorts Festival and Short Cuts tour, please call 305-755-9401 or visit www.citytheatre.com.

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