Playwriting Award Guidelines

Playwriting Award Guidelines

Each year Region I invites six (6) Ten-Minute plays and two (2) One-Act plays to be performed at its regional festival as concert readings. Writers work closely with a guest director on their play. Two (2) of the six (6) Ten-Minute plays are selected as National Semi-Finalist plays to be considered for an invitation to the national festival in Washington, D.C. Both invited One-Act Plays are considered National Semi-Finalists also up for consideration for an invitation to the national Festival in Washington, D.C.

Play submissions are made electronically (PDF or Word Document format). All scripts should be submitted anonymously. Please remove all playwright identification or school affiliation. Only the title should appear on the title page.

Please follow the link to the KCACTF Region I Submittable page enter your work. Fill out all categories on the submission form.

Attention Student Playwrights: The deadline for all Ten-Minute & One-Act play submissions is November 1. No late submissions will be accepted.

Please contact the Region I NPP Chair at [email protected] for more information.

The National Gary Garrison 10-Minute Play Award

    *Please examine the Submittable link (One-Act Plays) for due date information and to submit your work

    A short play is defined as a play of one-act without intermission that, within itself, does not constitute a full evening of theatre; the running time of a one-act play is under sixty (60) minutes, and when typed in standard format, a one-act play is approximately 15-45 (or so) pages in length.

    The submitted plays will be read by a panel of readers from a different region. Two of the top choices will be invited to Region I’s Festival. 

    Should you be one of the selected playwrights you must be able to attend the festival or your play will be disqualified. Do not submit your play unless you are able to attend.

    The One-Act Festival celebrates and supports the achievement of student playwrights. At the festival, playwrights will work with assigned guest directors on a public concert reading of their work. All casting and rehearsing of the reading will happen during the festival (however, you may be asked to review digital auditions prior to the festival). Three (3) festival respondents will respond to your play at the festival. Both plays chosen are also considered National Semi-Finalists from the regional festival. Those two (2) plays will then be held in consideration for the national festival in Washington DC, as potential National Finalists.

    For more information on the John Cauble Short Play Award, visit the KCACTF national website and follow this string: www.kcactf.org; Students; Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards; John Cauble Short Play Award

    In order to be selected a regional finalist for the KCACTF NATIONAL John Cauble Short Play Award, a one-act must be invited to the regional festival as either a participating full production or for a concert reading. To remain in award contention, the playwright must be able to attend the Region I festival.

     All plays are to be submitted through Submittable at the following link: Submittable

    *Please examine the Submittable link (One Act Plays) for due date information and to submit your work

    A short play is defined as a play of one-act without intermission that, within itself, does not constitute a full evening of theatre; the running time of a one-act play is under 60 minutes, and when typed in standard format, a one-act play is approximately 15-45 (or so) pages in length.

    Each entry must have had a period of significant development at the student’s college or university to be eligible. If the student’s school has any other associate or participating productions registered, the student is free to submit his or her play. If the school has no registered productions, the student should contact the Region I NPP Chair for submission instructions. The submitted plays will be read by a panel of readers from a different region. Two of the top choices will be invited to Region I’s Festival.

    Should you be one of the selected playwrights you must be able to attend the festival or your play will be disqualified. Do not submit your play unless you are able to attend.

    The One Act Festival celebrates and supports the achievement of student playwrights. At the festival, playwrights will work with assigned guest directors on a public concert reading of their work. All casting and rehearsing of the reading will happen during the festival. Three festival respondents will respond to your play at the festival. Both plays chosen are also considered National Semi-Finalists from the regional festival. Those two plays will then be held in consideration for the national festival in Washington DC, as potential National Finalists.

    For more information on the John Cauble Short Play Award, visit the KCACTF national website and follow this string: www.kcactf.org; Students; Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards; John Cauble Short Play Award

    In order to be selected a regional finalist for the KCACTF NATIONAL John Cauble Short Play Award, a one-act must be invited to the regional festival as either a participating full production or for a concert reading. To remain in award contention, the playwright must be able to attend the Region I festival.

    All plays are to be submitted through Submittable at the following link: Submittable

    This award may be presented to any student, faculty or working playwright whose play or musical is premiered and produced by a college or university theatre program and entered as an Associate or Participating entry within the KCACTF. Again, to be eligible, the submitted work must have been fully produced (not a staged reading) at the sponsoring school, and be registered as an Associate or Participating production with the festival.

    Please remove your name and school affiliation from the play itself.

    The play or musical will be read by at least two readers from Region I. The top two choices will be named the Region’s National Semi-Finalists at the Regional Festival in January. Their work will be held in consideration for the national festival in Washington DC in April as National Finalists.

    All plays are to be submitted through Submittable at the following link: Submittable

    The distinguished playwright and screenwriter Michael Kanin (1910-1993) arranged for a remarkable series of awards to be given to student writers as part of the festival. The purpose of the program is to encourage college students to write for the stage by providing the opportunity for them to engage in the playwriting process.

    All plays are to be submitted through Submittable at the following link: Submittable

    Please remove your name and school affiliation.

    The Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards include:

    HIP HOP THEATER CREATOR AWARD
    KEN LUDWIG PLAYWRITING SCHOLARSHIP
    THE HAROLD AND MIMI STEINBERG NATIONAL STUDENT PLAYWRITING AWARD
    KCACTF THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES AWARD
    KCACTF MUSICAL THEATRE AWARD
    (composer, lyricist, and librettist as well as faculty-written plays also eligible)

    LORRAINE HANSBERRY PLAYWRITING AWARD
    PAULA VOGEL AWARD IN PLAYWRITING
    THE LATINO PLAYWRITING AWARD
    JEAN KENNEDY SMITH PLAYWRITING AWARD
    MARK TWAIN COMEDY PLAYWRITING AWARD
    ROSA PARKS PLAYWRITING AWARD
    (faculty-written plays also eligible)

    THE PAUL STEPHEN LIM ASIAN-AMERICAN PLAYWRITING AWARD
    THE NATIONAL PARTNERS OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE PLAYWRITING AWARD
    THE NATIONAL UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT PLAYWRITING AWARD
    The National Undergraduate Playwriting Award is granted to an undergraduate who has written the outstanding full-length play. An undergraduate is a student who is currently enrolled in an undergraduate program or who graduated less than a year prior to the submission deadline or within two years prior and who currently has a play entered as an associate or participating production. Graduated students who have enrolled in an MA or MFA program are not eligible.

     


    Eligibility

    To be eligible for any student play-writing award, an undergraduate must carry a minimum of 6 semester hours (or equivalent quarter hours), while a graduate must carry 3 semester hours (or equivalent quarter hours). Undergraduate, graduate, and continuing part-time student playwrights must be matriculating, degree-seeking students. It is expected that work on the new play will have begun during the period the student is so enrolled.

    Students in on-line courses may submit ten-minute and one-act plays within the region they reside, providing they confirm that they carry the required 6 semester hours of credit when the play was written.

    To qualify for the David Mark Cohen Award and the National Student Playwriting Award each entered play must have received full productions at the submitting institution and be itself registered as a Participating production or Associate production. In addition, each new play registered as a Participating production will be considered for regional and national festival presentation.

    The remainder of the awards are considered reading awards: no production of the play is necessary to be considered for these awards.

    A new play or musical may be a collaboration, an adaptation, a company-written play, or a play based on factual materials but may not be a translation. To be eligible, adaptations from other works must include written permission for works under copyright and must involve substantial changes in form and/or expression.

    A full-length play is defined as either one major work or two or more shorter works written by the same playwright, based on a single theme, or encompassed within a unifying framework. In all cases, the entry must provide a full evening of theater-approximately one and one-half hours or longer, including intermissions.

    If the play has been produced, the production must be presented during the period of the student’s enrollment, or within one full year after his or her enrollment ends.

    Very Important: If your play is chosen to be read at the regional festival, you must be able to attend the entire festival week. Your active participation in the process is crucial. If you are unable to attend, your play will be taken out of consideration, and an alternate substituted.

    Please note that any one play may qualify for more than one award. Please read through all the award qualifications to see if your play can be submitted for more than one award. As with any portion of this process, if there are questions please contact the NPP Chair for Region One at: [email protected]