Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Opens Submissions for 8th Annual Young Playwrights Festival; Deadline 2/25

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center is now accepting scripts for its 8th Annual Young Playwrights Festival to be held May 10-12, 2013. Following the festival's great success over the past seven years, the O'Neill will again work with local high school and middle school students to develop and stage readings of selected original one-act plays. Scripts will be accepted through February 25, 2013.

Students begin working Friday, May 10 and spend the weekend with their creative team made up of a director, dramaturg and actors to develop and stage their scripts. The development process draws on principles and techniques used during the O'Neill's renowned National Playwrights Conference. With these methods, the students will hone their work, furthering it from the initial isolation of writing to the collaborative process involved in making their script into a living, breathing play.

"Our hope with the Young Playwrights Festival is to help foster the voices of the future by giving young writers the same nurturance and respect as our professional playwrights receive during the summer conferences," says Sophia Chapadjiev, Director of Education and of the Young Playwrights Festival, "We are happy to continue our Guest Playwright and Observership Program which allows an even greater number of students to be involved."

Selected students can expect a rigorous exploration of their work, assistance from professional artists, full rehearsals with their artistic team, and opportunities to revise their play. The Festival concludes with a script-in-hand public reading of the students' work on Sunday, May 12.

Plays will be selected on a competitive basis. Submission requirements are as follows:
Students grades six through twelve are eligible for the Festival.
Students must submit ten to fifteen pages of original work.
An application with a completEd Checklist and two copies of the scripts must be received by February 25, 2013.
Only the work of those able to attend the entire festival, May 10-12, 2013, will be considered for inclusion.

Submissions should be sent to:
Young Playwrights Festival
c/o Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
305 Great Neck Road
Waterford, CT 06385

To receive an application, or for more information about the Young Playwrights Festival, visit www.theoneill.org or contact Sophia Chapadjiev, Festival Director, at sophia@theoneill.org.

Founded in 1964, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center honors the work of Eugene O'Neill, four-time Pulitzer Prize Winner and America's only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and is the recipient of two Tony Awards, in 2010 for Regional Theatre, and in 1979 for Theatrical Excellence.

The O'Neill is the country's preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for American theater. It has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and to more than 2,500 emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O'Neill have gone on to full production at other theaters around the world, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, and major regional theaters.

O'Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute which conducts semester-long intensive theater training and includes Theatermakers, a six-week summer program; academic credits are awarded for all NTI programs.

In addition, the O'Neill owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. Childhood summer home of Eugene O'Neill, the Cottage is a National Historic Landmark.

In addition to its Tony recognition, the O'Neill has received the National Opera Award, the Jujamcyn Award for Theatre Excellence, and the Arts and Business Council Encore Award. For more information, visit www.theoneill.org or email theaterlives@theoneill.org.

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