Bad Theater Fest Now Accepting Submissions

The Bad Theater Fest, "envisioned and created as a safe and open environment for aspiring artists to present their work," is currently taking submissions of "anything" until August 31, 2012, midnight. All proposals are accepted through www.badtheaterfest.com. The submission fee is $10 and $5 for students. The Bad Theater Fest will be presented at The Tank,151 w. 46th St. (b/t 6th and 7th Ave) 8th Floor, New York, NY on Oct. 22-24 and 29-31, 2012 starting at 7pm. Tickets to shows will range from $10-$12 and be available for purchase at www.thetanknyc.org or by calling 212-563-6269.

The festival's goal is to attract both first-time playwrights and discarded material from more established and seasoned writers. "It's not that we have low standards," says co-founder Shawn Wickens. "We have different standards. We want to curate the most diverse festival possible, not only in content but also with who is involved." Part of the stated motivation behind launching a festival openly searching for bad theater is to make a venue available to people who want to write but worry how their piece is received.

Already, submissions have garnered a wide range of projects across a variety of genres. Some favorites of festival co-founder Starr Kendall are "Costumed stand-up comedians performing live knock-knock jokes, a staged reading of a 'Weekend at Bernie's' prequel, and a short play described as a 'Multimedia Camp Extravaganza' that centers on a disastrous Christmas pageant. The festival expects to include drama, sketch comedy, short films, dance and possibly even a one-woman show from a Beijing, China comedienne (provided she is invited to perform). The full schedule will be announced in mid-September.

A Bad Video Contest is also open through October 1, 2012 in which anyone is encouraged to make a 30 second promo video. Videos will be screened opening night with the "best" video receiving $25 and the "worst," as chosen by the audience, awarded $100. All Fest information is available at badtheaterfest.com and on Twitter @badtheaterfest.