O’NEILL PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE WILL ACCEPT FULL SCRIPTS,
UNDER NEW GUIDELINES, JANUARY 12 THROUGH FEBRUARY 6, 2004
Playwrights Unite to Support Open Submissions
Waterford, CT, January 9, 2004 — In response to strong encouragement and support from playwrights and the theater community, O’Neill Theater Center Artistic Director J Ranelli and Executive Director Amy Sullivan have announced that the O’Neill Playwrights Conference will accept open submissions of full scripts January 12 through February 6, 2004.
“The play selection process has always been a varied one. The range of sources has included nomination, invitation and open submission. The suspension of open submission was less an artistic decision than an administrative accommodation to economic and organizational circumstances. Thanks to the support of the playwrights ñ many of whom have offered to read scripts and recruit readers ñ and due to some significant changes in the Waterford organization, we can have this limited open period for the 2004 Conference and promise a wider window for 2005 and beyond.”
Playwrights who have offered to support the open submission process by creating a Playwrights Advisory include Lee Blessing, Christopher Durang, John Guare, David Henry Hwang, David Lindsay-Abaire, Joe Pintauro, Keith Reddin and Wendy Wasserstein — all writers who attended the Playwrights Conference early in their careers. The open submissions process this year will run alongside the nomination process which has been in place since September, meaning that plays from both processes will be considered for the 2004 O’Neill Playwrights Conference. The open process will not effect the eligibility or status of plays submitted through the nomination process, and is intended to allow “unconnected” playwrights access to this year’s Conference. Plays which are optioned or have already received productions or professional workshops are not eligible for open submissions, translations are also excluded. For more detailed guidelines, writers may visit the O’Neill website at www.TheONeill.org (guidelines are located under prog/plays/playapp.htm) or call 860.443.5378 x300.
More than 600 plays have evolved at The O’Neill since the Playwrights Conference began in 1965. Conference participants represent a wide range of experience from playwrights working on a first play to Broadway veterans; directors and actors have also worked on and off-Broadway and in regional theaters, representing emerging artists and seasoned professionals.
Not all writers-in-residence present public readings of their work. Several writers attend each year to work on special projects, which are not always presented during their stay. Conference artists also have access to discussions with a variety of guest speakers, theater trustees, teachers and fellows as well as journalists participating in the O’Neill Critics Institute.
The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, founded in 1964, has been home to more than 1000 new works for the stage and 2500 emerging artists and is itself the winner of a special Tony Award, the National Opera Award, the Jujamcyn Award of Theater Excellence and the Arts and Business Council Encore Award. The plays and musicals developed and performed at The O’Neill include such notable works as John Guare’s THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, Brian Crawley and Jeanine Tesori’s VIOLET, David Lindsay-Abaire’s FUDDY MEERS and KIMBERLY AKIMBO, John Henry Redwood’s THE OLD SETTLER, Deborah Bailey Brevoort’s THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE, August Wilson’s MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, FENCES and THE PIANO LESSON, AVENUE Q by Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty and NINE by Arthur Kopit, Mario Fratti and Maury Yeston.
|
