Thursday, October 21, 2010

New Leaf Theatre Announces New Plays Initiative: Submissions Now Open

New Leaf’s mission is to create intimate, animate theatrical experiences that renew artist and audience. Renewal is a fascinating idea, particularly in relation to the concept of change (the major idea behind our current season question, How do we dare live into the change we’ve chosen?). Renewal, as a form of change, doesn’t necessarily transform our core ideas or values. Instead, it re-energizes and reaffirms. We find renewed dedication and focus that we then put into action.

The development and presentation of new work has been implicit in New Leaf’s history for years. However, as we enter our tenth year and with the idea of renewal in mind, New Leaf is excited to unveil our newly structured initiative for new play development.

To begin, New Leaf has chosen to focus its efforts on a very specific part of the development process. We are interested in play polishing – fine tuning work that has already received at least one initial reading, work with which we can more aggressively engage in the collaborative process. I am proud of this unique space in the development process that we look forward to inhabiting – a space that is essential to the growth of new work, but one that is all too often vague and overlooked. To this end, our refocused Treehouse Readings Series will now help fill the gap that tends to exist in how plays are developed today, that of the 2nd reading, the 3rd reading, the next workshop – the true development of the play.

Here’s how that process will work.
Each season, New Leaf will announce a call for submissions by playwrights. These plays will be considered for our revamped Treehouse Readings Series, to be presented in the following season. Along with the general submission guidelines, we will reveal a specific thematic element within each call that submitted plays are to address in some way. Chosen plays will be presented as part of Treehouse, and at the end of that season, New Leaf will then choose one of the featured plays to fully produce in our next season. Through this system, our reading series will not merely be a side program of our company. Instead, it will serve as a primary mechanism for season selection, furthering opportunities for playwrights and discovering electrifying new work to share with the world.

WINTER/SPRING 2011 TREEHOUSE
Submissions Open from October 1st through November 30th, 2010
Readings to be presented between January and April 2011

The Winter/Spring 2011 element: HOME

Submission Eligibility:

To be eligible for consideration, submitted plays must fulfill the following criteria:

The play must not yet have received a full production with any theatre
The play must have received at least one previous public reading
The play must in some way address the year’s chosen idea/element

Submission Guidelines:
Playwrights should e-mail submission materials to write@newleaftheatre.org. Materials must include:
Electronic copy of full script (pdf or Word Doc ONLY)
List of character descriptions
A cover letter, no longer than ONE PAGE, that addresses the following questions:
How does your play address the idea of “HOME”?
Tell us about three artists (of any discipline) that inspire you and how/why.
Please tell us about a day that changed your life.

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