The Muse Unbidden

This sounds like a blast. There's a lot of material in would-be performance poets.

THE MUSE UNBIDDEN follows the journeys of self-discovery of several would-be poets enrolled in a Performance Poetry Workshop led by a charismatic unconventional Performance Poet.  Using music and dream diaries, the hapless participants  are cajoled into finding and surrendering to their personal Muses.  As their Workshop progresses they travel a rollicking Odyssey of confession and self-expression as they give voice to their obsessions, desires, wit, pain, and memories. For some their uninhibited revelry in self-expression leads to joyous catharsis, for others to grief and loss.   

This innovative musical satire written and directed by Roger Gregg, features a live soundscore performed by a cast of mult-talented actor-musicians including Donncha O’Dea and Noni Stapleton.   Produced by The Jack Burdell Experience as part of their Collaborations Festival, 

THE MUSE UNBIDDEN runs for one week only in the Smock Alley Boys School Theatre from Monday 13 to Saturday 18 Feb., at 9 pm.   

Tickets available through  entertainment.ie or at the door. €12/15 .  Or see  www.thejackburdellexperience.com

If you have a look on youtube you can get an idea of what it's about.

Theatre Trail Writers Competition 2012

The Arundel Festival Theatre Trail, conceived and presented by Drip Action Theatre Company, is now in its twelfth year. It performs at the end of August, on each of the Festival’s eight days, eight short plays at eight different venues all over Arundel – last year, for example, in a living room, a kitchen, an art gallery and a pub. 
Writers are invited to submit plays for the 2012 Theatre Trail.

Plays should be between 30 and 40 minutes long, suitable for day-time performance, with practicable casting and props. All entries should be submitted to:

Drip Action Theatre Trail 2012
c/o SGIS Ltd.
65a High Street
Arundel
West Sussex
BN18 9AJ

Deadline: 31st January 2012.

One play only per entrant, in hard copy (not e-mail). There is no reading fee.

A reading committee will select the plays that will be performed, with the best submitted script receiving the Joy Goun award of £250 at the Theatre Trail launch in May 2012.

Each successful playwright will receive a £150 writer’s fee.

For further information call 01903 885250 or e-mail dripactioninfo@btinternet.com

Drama Association of Wales

The Drama Association of Wales' One Act Playwriting Competition 2012 has now been launched.  The competition aims to encourage the writing of plays for theatre in English and Welsh. In addition to cash awards, prize-winning plays will be published. Previous prizewinners have been published and performed as a result of promotion through their New Writing Scheme.

Playing Time: 20-50 mins
Minimum cast of two – No monologues

Prizes:

• Best Play for a Youth Cast (16-25 year olds) * Please note, the plays in this category must not only be for actors between 16 & 25 but must also have characters aged 16-25; in other words, the scripts must be age appropriate
• Best Play in the Open Category
• Best Play in the Welsh Language

The winning play in each category will receive a cash prize and will be published.

Deadline: 31st January 2012

To download an entry form and for more information, visit the Drama Association of Wales website.

Know the Ropes

Submissions for this magazine are now being sought.

The 2012 MA Literature and Publishing class is delighted to announce the call for submissions for the 20th issue of ROPES.

The theme this year is ‘Links’.

Links may be interpreted as reflections on the past and transformations to the present, on changes in people even if they intrinsically remain the same, or the effect development has had on our now digital culture.

We invite submission of poetry, prose and drama, with a maximum of 2500 words

no more than three submissions per author.

All submissions must be unpublished.

The launch date is set for 26th of April, 2012 at Cúirt International Festival of Literature.

Deadline: 5pm, 9 December 2011

Please send all submissions to ropes.submissions@gmail.com

For further information see http://ropesgalway2012.wordpress.com/

Can you write a winning tiny play?

‘The Irish Times’ is supporting an exciting initiative aimed at broadening the range of voices in Irish theatre.

FISHAMBLE IS LOOKING for tiny plays that explore contemporary life in Ireland. We want to create a discussion, through theatre, about our country, so we are inviting new, emerging and established writers of any age – in other words, you – to submit plays that capture moments and offer glimpses of Irish life.

Fishamble choose the winners and pay each selected writer a fee of €250. We will work with you on the development of the commissioned plays and produce them in March 2012 at Project Arts Centre, in Dublin. A selection will be published in The Irish Times leading up to the production.

Plays must be original to the writer and run for no more than four minutes – as a guide, no more than 600 words, including stage directions.
Plays should be performable by a cast of no more than three actors.
Plays must be in English or Irish – or, as long as the writer is based in Ireland, in another language.
Monologues are accepted, but dialogue plays are preferred.
Plays should have a title and should be submitted with your name to fishambletinyplays @irishtimes.com
Deadline November 11th, 2011.
If you are under 18, please include your age.
No more than two plays per person will be accepted.

Some good tips here

Playwriting Competition for plays for children

Plays for children and young people can excite and inspire writers, performers and audiences. Now in its second year, the International Playwriting Competition from Trinity College, London encourages new writing in this field, recognising the very best with cash prizes, performances on the London stage and publication with international distribution.

Writers are asked to submit a one-act play that is either:

suitable for performers aged 11 years and under

or

intended for an audience aged 12–16 years.

The competition is open to writers of any age, of any level of experience and from any country.

Entry Options

There are two fee options to choose from:

• entry with written feedback (£20 entry fee)
• entry only with no written feedback (£10 entry fee)

Prizes

In each category:

• cash prize of £1,000 for the winning writer
• Trinity College London will publish the winning plays in a collection of plays from the competition
• winning play to be performed at a gala event at a London theatre in January 2012
• travel and accommodation costs for the writer to attend the gala performance.

In addition, up to six ‘Highly Commended’ awards:

• cash prize of £500
• Trinity College London will publish the winning plays in a collection of plays from the competition.

Awards will also be made for The Most Promising Playwright(s) aged 11 years and under and The Most Promising Playwright(s) aged 12–16 years.

Deadline: 1 September 2011.

Bruntwood Prize for playwriting

The Bruntwood Prize is the biggest national competition for playwriting. It is a search for great plays and great writers. We are looking for scripts that are original and unperformed, by writers of any experience. You can find out about what you might win below.

Deadline: 6th June 2011 at 6pm

Enter online. Link here

The competition is open to anyone resident in the UK and Ireland.
One entry per person
The play must be an original, unperformed and unproduced piece of work, in theatre and in any medium. Amateur performances do not apply. Unproduced means the play cannot have received a production in any form, anywhere in the world, apart from one rehearsed reading only.
The play must be an hour long or more.
The submitted play must be available for production and unattached to any other theatre or company. Any scripts that have been professionally optioned, produced or published will be disqualified.
We do accept plays co-authored by more than one writer.

Prizes
All scripts awarded prizes are automatically under option to the Royal Exchange for a period of eighteen months after the announcement of the awards.
If a winning script is produced by the Royal Exchange, the prize money will replace all first production or development fees. However, the standard percentage of box office receipts and rehearsal attendance fees will still be paid to the writer.

* A First Prize of £16,000 – with the offer of a year-long attachment with the Royal Exchange Theatre

* Three Judges’ Awards of £8,000 each.

(That's big money!)

All four winners will have the opportunity to develop their play at the Royal Exchange with a view to production. In addition, leading publisher Nick Hern Books will publish those plays that go on to receive a production at the Exchange.

Entry is FREE.

Playwriting Workshop in Athlone

Playwriting Workshop with Thomas Conway, Literary Manager, Druid Theatre Company.
This event is hosted in association with The All-Ireland Drama Festival Fringe.

02 May · 09:30 - 16:30

AIB Gallery @ Dean Crowe Theatre

Chapel St.

Athlone

Thomas will lead a workshop for beginners and more experienced writers exploring imaginative worlds, writing monologues and dialogue.

Registration Fee: €5.

Thomas will return to Athlone during the Literary Festival in October to host a follow up workshop which will build on the work carried out in May.

Places are limited and advance booking is essential.
Contact literaryathlone@gmail.com to book a place.

Cork Arts Theatre One Act Playwright awards

ONE ACT PLAYWRIGHT AWARDS 2011

Cork Arts Theatre runs an annual playwright’s award hosted, organised and sponsored by the Theatre. To date over 800 new plays have been submitted and judged, over 150 have been performed and 6 have been published.

Submissions are now being accepted for our 2011 One Act Playwright Awards.

* Application form & a copy of the rules can be downloaded HERE . Six plays will be short-listed, for production.

* Deadline for entry is 29th April, 2011 and the cost is 25 euro per script.

* All writers will be invited to Writers Day, when they will receive a full adjudication of their work, and, short-listed plays will be announced. This will take place in early Autumn with production in November.

* Full technical support will be provided by our staff and we will engage production companies and directors to work with writers on scripts for staging.

* We have two different categories of Award: Established Writers (category A) and New Writers (category B). Both recicients of category A and category B Awards will receive a trophy, a prize of €100, and have their play produced.

* Six production companies will perform the plays during Writer's Week 2011 with each play getting a minimum of two airings.

They are also looking for Full Length Plays and 30-40 minute productions for lunchtimes. See here

Windsor Fringe Marriott Drama Writing Award

They're looking for one act plays in Windsor.

Amateur playwrights are invited to submit unpublished one-act plays for the eighth £500 Windsor Fringe Marriott Drama Writing Award.

Deadline: 3 March 2011

The three winning scripts will be selected for performances during Drama Nights at the Windsor Fringe on 6, 7 and 8 October 2011. One of the three scripts will be chosen, purely on the writing, for the £500 prize.

Does that mean the other two get no money?

Submitted scripts must not have been previously published or performed.

Link here.

A £5 reading fee will be charged per entry. Snailmail only.

London Theatre Project for Writers

Little Episodes and Circalit Launch London Theatre Project for Writers

Little Episodes, an organisation that promotes the arts as a therapeutic tool, has today announced the 2011 ‘Six Little Episodes’ scriptwriting competition. Six new scripts from emerging UK playwrights will be showcased in a London theatre during 2011. These performances will run for a week and the six produced finalists will be judged by a panel of industry experts.

The competition is hosted at Circalit, a social-networking site for writers, where the public can read submissions, write reviews, and vote for their favourites. The competition is free to enter and the six finalists will be chosen by Little Episodes.

The deadline for entries is 31st January 2011 and entrants must be based in the UK and Eire. For more information or to submit a script please visit http://www.circalit.com.

For more information on Little Episodes you can visit: http://www.littleepisodes.org.

Contact:
Robert Tucker
Director of Communications
www.circalit.com
rob@circalit.com

Conall Morrison has recently been appointed as Theatre Artist-in-Residence at the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, funded by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and the Arts Council.

As part of his residency Conall will be starting up a playwrights' scriptwriting group based in the Pavilion Theatre from the end of January, which will run for the duration of the residency.

Places in the group are strictly limited, so if you are interested please submit a finished play or substantial extract from a work in progress for consideration to:

Conall Morrison, Theatre Artist in Residence, Pavilion Theatre, Marine Road, Dún Laoghaire.

There is no fee for participants, but there may be some photocopying costs. Please refer any queries to conall@paviliontheatre.ie

Please note extended closing date for submissions:Friday 14th January 2011 @ 5.30pm

End of July Competitions

From my favourite magazine Mslexia and some more from Kudos.

There are a buzzillion competitions with deadlines at the end of July. Here's a list. Google the details yourself or get yourself a copy of Mslexia for full details.

Deadline: 30th July

• Wasafiri New Writing Prize: Poetry, Fiction and Life Writing. Prize only for the winner so I won't enter. I think you need more of a spread/chance.
• Essex Poetry Festival 10th Open Poetry Competition. £6 per poem, £20 for 5

Deadline: 31st July

• Norman MacCaig Centenary Poetry Competition. £5 per poem, £12 for 3
• Hay-on-Wye Short Story Competition
• The Slingink Prize: Fiction and Poetry, Adult and Junior Small prizes
• Aldeburgh first collection has to be published already
• McLellan Award for Play Writing
• Narrative Short Story Contest. A US prize goes up to 15,000 words
• HISSAC Open Short Story Competition
• Sean O'Faolain Short Story Competition. More here
• Guildford Book festival Short Story Competition Up to 7,000 words that inspire and uplift. Aimed to be read in full on the train from Guildford to Waterloo. One prize only.
• The Sussex Playwrights' Club One Act Play Competition
• SpokenInk Audiostory Competition
• Sid Chaplin Short Story Competition. Also for junior writers.

Sentinel Literature Festival Anthology

The Sentinel Literary Movement aims to showcase poetry, short fiction and drama. Last year they held the first Sentinel Literature Festival Anthology in London, which was a great success and this year they are holding their second festival from October 28th to 31st.

The literary festival venue is Pearson (North east entrance) Lecture Theatre), University College London, Gower Street, London with events beginning promptly at 7pm on Thursday 28th and Friday 29th, and at 5pm on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31st.

This year, the festival is publishing an anthology of short stories, poetry and drama and they are looking for submissions.

Poetry

Submit previously unpublished poems on any subject or style up to 60 lines long.

Short Stories

Submit previously unpublished stories on any subject or style up to 2,000 words long. They say they are looking for good imaginative writing, and sharp observation and writing that makes the reader think.

Drama

Submit previously unpublished short plays on any subject or style up to 8,000 words long. These short plays must be complete pieces and not scenes or excepts from longer plays. We will accept and abridged version of a play, but any reader must get a sense that he has read a complete story.

Deadline is July 31st 2010

There is no cash payment, but every featured author will receive one free contributor’s copy plus a 20% discount on any additional copies purchased.

Please send your submission(s) by email only to festivalanthology@sentinelpoetry.org.uk

For further information, please visit http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/literaturefestival/slfa2010.html

A masterclass in performance

From the Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler. There are lots of other performances of this on Youtube. Watch a few others and spot the humongous difference a good performance makes.

Playwrights at the New Theatre

From the Irish Writers' Centre blog. (Follow them)

The New Theatre in Temple Bar, Dublin is looking for budding or experienced playwrights to participate in playreadings.

These readings will take place the first Saturday of every month.

The theatre is currently seeking outlines which can be sent to info@thenewtheatre.com to the attention of Jane or Anthony.

Screenwriting workshop in Navan

Professional Theatre Workshops | Tall Tales Theatre Company & Solstice Arts Centre in partnership with Meath County Council Arts Office

Playwriting Workshop
Dates: Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 APRIL    Time: 9.30am - 5.30pm

For a full listing of upcoming professional theatre workshops, click here

Celebrated writer Mark O'Halloran while talking through his own creative process introduces participants to different techniques in getting started with creative writing including characterisation, plot and dialogue. Aswell as writing numerous plays Mark is probably best known for his writing for screen with 'Adam and Paul', 'Garage' and 'Prosperity' earning him numerous awards.

To participate in the course and for a more detailed breakdown of the workshops schedule please contact Tracy at info@talltales.ie.
Fee for the two days is €80.   Please book early as places are limited. Call 046 909 2300. 

Some great opportunities for playwrights

Rather than copying out, may I direct you to Jaki's blog CloudNine.

It includes:

• Tinderbox Young Writer Programme Fireworks 2010.  Deadline 3 May
• 2010 “Write Now” Competition. For unpublished writers. Deadline 31st March
• Lunch Time Theatre Belfast. 
  
• Bare Bones Nights at the Old Red Lion Theatre, London Deadline: 17 April
• FoxedUP Theatre, London Deadline: End April
• National Ten Minute Play Competition 2010 Deadline: 23 Apr 2010

Workshops at the Seanchaí Literary Centre, Listowel

What: WRITING FOR THEATRE
This workshop will deal with beginnings and endings and the bits in-between, along with the rules of the road regarding writing for the stage. Participants may send in their work beforehand for assessment and discussion.

When: 10th & 11th April
Who: Billy Roche

What: SHORT FICTION
How does the writer of fiction accomplish success? – By presenting the work in such a way that the reader can see, hear, taste, smell, touch it. The reader must be engaged and stimulated through his/her senses. With this in mind, the workshop will incorporate:

1. Characterization:
2. Setting (or) Atmosphere
3. Plot (or) Conflict

When: 17th & 18th April
Who: Leo Cullen

What: WRITING POETRY
This workshop will focus on the creation of new work through the use of writing exercises and assignments in poetry. Mornings in particular will be devoted to the writing of new work with directed assignments. During the afternoon session we will workshop the new work with constructive criticism.

Workshop participants will also have a chance during the two days for individual one-on-one sessions with Paul to discuss their work, its strength and weaknesses, and strategies for improving their work. Participants may bring some examples of work-in-progress for critique, but the main focus of the two days will be the making of new work while in Listowel.

The workshop will aim to create a supportive environment while investigating and developing the notion of a ‘voice’ for each author. We will also discuss the practicalities of publishing and appropriate ways participants can submit work for publication. The workshop is open to new or experienced writers who want to develop their craft.

When: 24th & 25th April
Who: Paul Perry

What: LITERARY READINGS

As part of the 2010 Spring Workshops Programme all three writers will give a reading from their works on each Saturday evening of the workshop at 8 pm in the Seanchaí Centre. Admission is free for workshop participants, and €5.00 for the general public.

Fee Per Workshop : €130.00

More information on the website

Fingal Playwrights

Write Here Write Now. Draiocht in association with Fishamble Theatre Company are looking for new plays by emerging Fingal playwrights. They say

Do you live or work in the Fingal area and are you over 18?
Have you thought about writing a play for the stage?
Then this is your chance to work with Fingal’s leading multi-disciplinary arts centre and Ireland’s only theatre company entirely dedicated to the production of new work.

Deadline: Friday 26th February 2010.

Forward an outline/treatment of a new play that you would be interested in writing. Tell us where the play is located, who the main characters are, what it’s all about and why you want to write it. The submission should take the format of one to two A4 pages typed and double-spaced.