Announcements and feedback: Panoply 2009's "Ten-Minute Playwright Competition"

You’re invited to write a 10-Minute Play pertaining to The Arts Council’s theme, Alabama Threads-From Cotton to the Cosmos for the Panoply Arts Festival 2009, presented by Boeing. (In other words, the script should reflect a historic era or event that occurred in the state of Alabama – for 2009 is “The Year of Alabama History”!) It’s The Arts Council’s salute to the magic of theater!

10-Minute Plays are a relatively new dramatic structure; in our fast-food society of short attention spans and commitment phobias, this competition is the perfect literary/theatric “combo meal” to educate and expose the general public to bite-sized portions of the arts.

Festival organizers are currently seeking submissions from playwrights for this very popular annual event. Aspiring, novice, and longtime authors are asked to develop a full plot with a beginning, middle, and end – all within a running time of seven to ten minutes and with a cast of no more than four characters. As befitting the family nature of Panoply, plays must be for a general audience base; no “mature audience only” material.

Previous winners have come from Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and Alexandria – and, of course, the Huntsville area – but submissions have been accepted from everywhere! Last year’s committee received scripts from playwrights in twenty-four states, the District of Columbia, Canada, Australia, England, and

Scotland

!

Submitted scripts will go through a juried process, with winners receiving a $50 stipend for their work. However, the greatest reward is the chance for the winning playwrights to see their creation brought to life, performed and directed by local individuals at the Panoply Arts Festival – which celebrates its 28^th year Friday-Sunday, April 24-26, 2009 in Big Spring International Park in downtown Huntsville, Alabama.

The Panoply crew will take the responsibility of working with area schools and drama troupes to produce each play five times in the park during the festival. Panoply Arts Festival is the South’s Most All-Embracing ARTStravaganza, held annually on the last full weekend of April in downtown Huntsville, Alabama’s Big Spring International Park. In both 2007 and 2008, this celebration of the arts attracted over 140,000 people and continues to offer the community a wide array of the arts, including 5 performing stages showcasing the best in theater, music, and dance, the Panoply Choreography Competition, a juried Art Marketplace with artists from across the US, many FREE make-and-take activities for children and families, the Global Village, and the 10-Minute Playwright Competition, among other contests.

The deadline for applications is approaching: all submissions must be postmarked by Wednesday, 31 December 2008! Submissions (application and script) should be mailed to:

Playwrights should visit the Panoply website at http://www.panoply.org/ - For more information, e-mail The Arts Council office at jbroad@panoply.org or call (256) 519-2787, ext. 205. Winners will be notified by Monday, 16 February 2009; production crews will receive the scripts by Monday, 23 February; and dress rehearsals will take place on Thursday, 23 April.