O'Neill Theater Center Accepting Scripts for 2015 Playwrights Conference

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center is now accepting scripts for development during the 2015 National Playwrights Conference. Applicants may submit works to the O'Neill's Open Submissions Process through Friday, October 17, 2014.

The National Playwrights Conference, which celebrated 50 years of new play development during the summer of 2014, is the founding program of the O'Neill and is led by Artistic Director Wendy C. Goldberg. The conference supports playwrights during the creation and development of new plays. Authors of selected works will be awarded a residency with a stipend, housing, meals, and transportation to support an intensive rehearsal process and two script-in-hand public readings.

The O'Neill takes its mission for the discovery of new work and artists to heart: approximately 1,000 scripts are submitted for consideration each year. All developed projects in 2014, and seven of eight projects in 2013, 2012, and 2011, were discovered through the Open Submission Process. Submissions are sent to readers across the country and read blindly, allowing volunteer readers to focus on each writer's voice and story, rather than a recognizable name or previous accomplishment. Each year, additionally, there might be one or two invitations for established writers or collaborations with other institutions; these help launch conversations with the larger national field.

Goldberg, Artistic Director since 2005, noted, "It's been a remarkable year celebrating our 50th anniversary, and now we look to the future. For our 51st season, I look forward to building on our immense artistic legacy and helping to nurture the most innovative and fearless storytellers of our time."

During Goldberg's tenure, more than 50 works have gone on to world premiere productions. The 2014-15 theatrical season will see world premieres of Halley Feiffer's I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard (NPC 2014) at the Atlantic Theater Company, Lost Lake by David Auburn (NPC 2013) at Manhattan Theatre Club, Little Children Dream of God by Jeff Augustin (NPC 2013) at Roundabout Underground, and Lauren Yee's Samsara (NPC 2013) at Victory Gardens. Additionally, Jennifer Haley's Susan Smith Blackburn prize-winning The Nether, developed at NPC 2011, will have its New York premiere at MCC Theater.

The National Playwrights Conference was launched in 1964. Playwrights have shaped the Conference from its very inception. When founder George C. White first gathered a prominent group of emerging writers to discuss their needs, the result was the "O'Neill model" - a place where playwrights can focus entirely on the development of their plays in workshop production without the pressures of commercial endeavors. More than 600 plays have evolved through the National Playwrights Conference.

The O'Neill continues to build an endowment to support Open Submissions. Initiated in 2006 with donations made in honor of O'Neill playwright Wendy Wasserstein, interest income helps support the submission and selection process.