Announcing The Writer's Studio at Chicago Dramatists

Chicago Dramatists proudly announces The Writer’s Studio, an umbrella for all of our public programming at our Center for New Play Development.

The Writer's Studio is a reworking of the developmental programs and classes that Chicago Dramatists offers, to increase accessibility for all of the artists in our city. In our history of play development, playwrights could engage with Chicago Dramatists in one of three ways: by applying for our Residency program, taking classes, or paying a membership fee to participate in our development programs. The Writer’s Studio now allows any writer --- from the novice to the seasoned professional --- the opportunity to engage in all levels of our public programming. Chicago Dramatists is already seeing a wider range in the ages of our program participants and greater ethnic diversity as a direct result of our efforts to expand our mission of accessible art to the community. Our MEH Lewis Fund scholarships make it possible for us to include writers who could not previously afford to partake in our programming. We have also expanded our services to give writers more access to actors and industry gatekeepers.

The following Writer’s Studio programs are now available to anyone:
Script Review: If a writer from anywhere in the world would like feedback from a professional writer or dramaturg, they may send in their script and receive a 2-3 page critique in 3 weeks. Plays, screenplays, and TV pilots are welcome.

Table Readings: An opportunity for a writer to hear their script read aloud with professional actors, and a director or dramaturg leading the post-reading discussion. A limited number of table readings are available; a link to the application form is on our website.

First Draft Reading Series: One of our most popular programs is the Tuesday night reading series of scripts read by fellow writers. First Drafters convene, cast one another in their plays, read them cold, and a playwriting professional leads a talkback with the group. There are 42 First Draft readings per year. Joining the First Draft rolling membership guarantees the participant at least one reading per year.

Classes: The classes at Chicago Dramatists are the backbone of our organization, cultivating new writers, and providing a space for more experienced writers to hone their skills or branch out into screenwriting, TV writing, solo show writing, etc. Public Programs Director Mia McCullough is dedicated to providing a varied and eclectic array of offerings. By autumn, Chicago Dramatists plans to offer on-line classes as well.

Writers’ Groups: Our new writers’ groups offer dramatic writers a space to meet with fellow writers in a similar place in their career, workshop their scripts, and meet industry professionals.

Please visit our website www.chicagodramatists.org to for further details and pricing.

Panel Discussion: Understanding Play Development

Saturday, February 11, 2 p.m.
Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave. 
Moderated by Artistic Director Meghan Beals
Join us for a Saturday afternoon discussion on the inner workings of new play development. Where does a play begin? How do playwrights go from idea, to script, to production? What does a playwright need from directors and actors? What is an actor’s role in the room? A Director’s? And, if you are interested in new work, as a creative or an audience member, how can you get involved? Panelists include three Resident Playwrights of Chicago Dramatists. Following the panel discussion, audience questions and participation will be encouraged.

Babes With Blades Announces Joining Sword and Pen Competition

Babes With Blades Theatre Company is a Chicago-based company, currently celebrating its 17th season! Our unique mission, using stage combat to place women and their stories center stage, is at the heart of this playwriting competition. "Joining Sword and Pen" is the international playwriting competition we founded in 2005 to increase the number of quality scripts featuring fighting roles for women - and the 2014-15 competition is now open!

Just the facts: Submission Deadline: 2/27/15
Prize for winner: $1,000 and production of the script in 2015/16 as part of BWBTC's season Basic Requirements (full list of requirements on our site: www.BabesWithBlades.org)
1 - Only FULL LENGTH submissions will be accepted: 75-120 minutes (at least 60 pages) in length.
2 - The moment depicted in the 'inspiration' images (http://babeswithblades.org/?page_id=46) must be dramatized in the play.
3 - Women must be in most/all of the primary roles. Women must be featured in most/all of the combat. (Mixed cast is allowed)
4 - All submissions must be new, original works, inspired by the contest’s topic
5 - Submission Guidelines (found at:http://babeswithblades.org/?page_id=2707) must be followed.

Victory Gardens Theater Announces Call for Submissions for 2014 Ignition Festival

Victory Gardens Theater Artistic Director Chay Yew announces a call for submissions of new, challenging, and innovative plays to be a part of the 2014 IGNITION Festival of New Plays, which will take place July 21-27, 2014. The fourth IGNITION festival will create a productive environment for both emerging and established playwrights to explore and develop their new work. The deadline for submission is Thursday, May 15, 2014.

INGITION’s six selected plays will be presented in a festival of readings scheduled for summer 2014 and will be directed by leading artists from Chicago and around the country. Following the readings, two of the plays will be selected for intensive workshops during Victory Gardens 2014/15 season, and Victory Gardens will produce one of these final scripts in an upcoming season.

For More Information and Submissions Submission can be mailed to:
IGNITION, Victory Gardens Theater
2433 N. Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60614.

Work can also be submitted electronically to ignition@victorygardens.org

All submissions must be received by May 15, 2014. For more information about IGNITION Festival of New Plays, visit www.victorygardens.org.

TimePieces Australian Playwrights Event

TimeLine Theatre Company, in collaboration with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and the Australian Consulate, announces that it will host several of Australia’s best and brightest performance writers for a day of discussion and play readings on Sunday, February 23, 2014 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street, Chicago.
Writers Reg Cribb, Tom Holloway, Lally Katz and Maxine Mellor are visiting Chicago as part of a tour of the United States that also takes them to Los Angeles and New York City this month. The tour has been organized by the Australian organization Inscription, led by its director Marcus West. Founded in 1998, Inscription collaborates with leading artists from Australia and the United States to script, sharpen and present quality content across theatre, film and television.

All events are free and open to the public, but space is limited and reservations are strongly recommended. Call the TimeLine Theatre Box Office at 773.281.8463 x6 or email boxoffice@timelinetheatre.com to request reservations to any individual or all events.

EVENT SCHEDULE
11 am – 11:45 am: Panel Discussion moderated by Chris Jones, chief theatre critic for the Chicago Tribune, and featuring playwrights Reg Cribb, Tom Holloway, Lally Katz, Maxine Mellor, and Inscription Director Marcus West.
12 pm – 1:30 pm: Reading of Forget Me Not by Tom Holloway
Gerry is almost 60 and he's going to meet his mother for the first time since he was 3. His mother lives somewhere in the UK—Liverpool, according to the records—and his daughter Sally has had it up to here with him and his problems. So Gerry is going back to Britain to find out what made him who he is. Between 1945 and the late 1960s more than 3,000 British children were told they were orphans and sent to Australia on a promise of warmth, fresh air, abundant food and boundless opportunity. Instead they arrived to deprived institutions where neglect and abuse were the norm. Playwright Tom Holloway has written a series of raw, achingly beautiful conversations between members of a scattered family. Drawing the whole thing together is Gerry's extraordinary, precarious bid to finally learn what it means to love and belong to a family.
1:45 pm – 3 pm: Reading of A Golem Story by Lally Katz
Ahava, a young Jewish woman, wakes up in the Synagogue. She has been through a traumatic ordeal. Her memory is weak, her heart is broken. She has woken into a desperate time, in a desperate place. On the cobblestone streets of medieval Prague, chaos reigns. As the men fight their own demons and each other, children are disappearing. An invisible emperor has decreed a purging of the Ghetto, and a Rabbi works through the dark night to fashion an avenging monster, a man made out of clay. The Golem. A love, mystery and revenge story.

All events will take place on the 5th Floor of the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street, in downtown Chicago, with the panel discussion taking place in the Millennium Park Room and both play readings taking place in the Washington Room.

Prologue Theatre Co. Seeks Short Scripts

Prologue Theatre Co. seeks new short scripts for our fifth annual Landmark Festival. This year’s theme (to which submitted scripts should be related) is “Shattered Reason" Scripts should be about 10 minutes long and not yet produced in Chicago. Selected scripts will be produced in the spring of 2014. Send full script to Whitney Morse, Literary and Casting Director at literary@prologuetheatreco.org by March 15th. Please include a cover letter indicating your level of interest in participating in script development sessions in advance of the festival (note: not being interested/available for script development will not affect a script’s eligibility to be produced as part of the festival). More information about the festival, including detailed information on what kind of plays we’d like to receive, can be found at our website: www.prologuetheatreco.org.

The theme for our season is "Shattered Reason." This is a theme that applies in several different ways to the shows we'll be producing this season - so don't feel as though you need to take the prompt literally. We strive for a variety of tones, styles, and tempos throughout the festival - comedy is just as welcome as tragedy. Also keep our mission in mind as you are writing:

The Past is Prologue. We produce new and forgotten works from underrepresented voices. In this way, we relate the experiences of yesterday with the lives of today.

Chicago Dramatists Winter 2012 Classes

As the national leader in playwright training, Chicago Dramatists offers a variety of professional playwriting classes designed for both beginning and experienced playwrights. Classes are focused on building practical skills and stage worthy scripts, and are conducted in a supportive, positive manner. Most classes include a mix of lecture, discussion, writing assignments (both in and out of class), and reading and critiquing participants' work. beginning playwrights enroll in classes to learn the basics and write their first plays. Working playwrights enroll in classes to review basic skills, attack a specific problem, and explore new or specialized techniques.

Have questions about a particular class or which would be best for you? Read the full class descriptions on our website at www.chicagodramatists.org/classes or call (312) 633-0630

Chicago Dramatists Summer 2012 Classes

Always Wanted To Write But Didn’t Know Where to Start? This Summer: Become a Playwright at Chicago Dramatists

A national leader in playwright training, Chicago Dramatists offers a variety of professional playwriting classes designed for both beginning and experienced playwrights. Classes are focused on building practical skills and stage-worthy scripts, and are conducted in a supportive, positive environment. Most classes include a mixture of lecture, discussion, writing assignments (both in and out of class), reading and critiquing participants’ work.

A teacher or acting-school student? Receive 15% off and if you’re a theater undergrad or grad student, receive 40% off! Discounts for seniors and first timers are also available along with the full listing of classes at http://www.chicagodramatists.org/.  Hurry! Registration is limited!

Chicago Theatre New Play Convening

The League of Chicago Theatres and Victory Gardens Theater will host a Chicago theatre new play convening in conjunction with the final day of the national new play convening, organized by the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, entitled Scarcity to Abundance: Capturing the Moment for the New Work Sector.

The event will take place Saturday, Jan. 29 from 8:30am-1pm in the Richard Christiansen Theater at the Victory Gardens Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Click here for VG Directions and Parking. Attendees will watch a live stream of the roundtable discussions from the national convening, and then participate in a moderated discussion of the topics within the context of the Chicago theatre community.

The national convening will focus on the following: identifying the rich and vital activity that already exists in the new play sector, exploring the gaps and challenges facing the field and strategizing the means of continued and closer collaboration to advance the new work infrastructure moving forward. In partnership with 2AMt, Arena Stage is setting up viewing parties across the country. Convenings are also taking place in Austin, Dallas, DC, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, and San Francisco. All findings from these community discussions will be published on the 2AMt blog. In order to view live-streamed events, please access #NewPlay TV online at http://www.livestream.com/newplay. You can join the discussion on Twitter at #NewPlay

To attend please RSVP to ben@chicagoplays.com before Friday, January 28 at 5 p.m.