RANDOLPH—Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph is pleased to announce its fourth “Issues Playwriting Contest.”
With the renewed support of the Walter Cerf Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, Chandler will again be using the contest to promote excellent writing for the stage, giving particular focus to plays that address social issues. “Social issue” plays are, for the purposes of this contest, plays that frame and delve into pressing topics important to Vermont communities, topics which either affect Vermonters today or have affected Vermonters in the past.
Writers from Vermont, or those with a strong Vermont connection, are invited to submit to Chandler original plays on social issues with a running time of at least 45 minutes.
Submissions may be made electronically or by snail mail, and must either be received electronically by midnight on June 30, or be mailed with a postmark dated no later than June 30.
Each submission requires a $20 entry fee, a description of the play’s history of past public presentations (if applicable), and a statement confirming that the play has not yet been professionally produced. For an additional fee of $15, a second script may be submitted by the same playwright. If fewer than 10 scripts are submitted by June 30, the contest will be canceled and the fees will be returned.
Scripts will be evaluated by judges with theater experience, who will select up to five finalists based on the quality of the writing (language, characterization, dramatic structure) and the clarity with which the focal issue is presented, and their selection will be final. Finalists will be notified by September 30, and each will receive a $100 cash prize. Each finalist play will be given a staged-reading production in Chandler’s Upper Gallery in early 2021.
An application form for playwrights and a registration form for plays, plus more detailed information about the contest, can be found in the Vermont Issues Playwriting Contest listing on the Chandler website: chandler-arts.org.
