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The Eugene O?Neill Theater Center is now accepting scripts for development during the 2012 National Playwrights Conference. Applicants for the National Playwrights Conference may submit works to the O?Neill?s Open Submissions Process through Friday, October 21, 2011.
The National Playwrights Conference, led by Artistic Director Wendy C. Goldberg, supports playwrights during the creation and development of new play projects. The authors of selected works will be awarded a residency for the entire month of July 2012, within which there will be a rehearsal process and two script-in-hand public readings. A stipend, housing, meals, and transportation are provided for each writer selected for this month-long residency. Any play of any length or genre is eligible; however, to be included in the conference, the work must remain unproduced through July 31, 2012. Early submissions are strongly encouraged. No agent required. There is a fee to support the selection process.Open submissions are a key element of the National Playwrights Conference?s mission to develop diverse voices and new works for the American stage, requiring neither agent submission nor previous experience. The O'Neill typically receives between 800 and 1,000 scripts for consideration. The plays are sent to readers across the country. The work is read blindly, and this anonymity allows the O?Neill?s volunteer readers to focus on each writer?s voice and story, rather than a recognizable name or previous accomplishment.
The O'Neill takes its mission for the discovery of new work and artists to heart. The leadership team at the O'Neill and the National Playwrights Conference is committed to the Open Submissions policy. This means that the majority of plays developed will be drawn from this pool each summer. In both the 2011 and 2010 National Playwrights Conferences, seven of the developed works were discovered through the open submission process. Invitations or collaborations will be in the minority (one or two a year), but will always be a part of the mix, as they help launch conversations with a larger national field. The submission fee is $35 dollars and covers the costs of the process. In an effort to reduce the overall cost of applying, NPC will continue to accept electronic submissions this year. We believe a paperless process is also the responsible choice for the environment. Visit http://www.theoneill.org/summer-conferences/npc/submission-info/ for an application. Please direct any questions about the conference to Martin Kettling, Literary Manager at (860) 443-5378 ext. 227 or email litoffice@theoneill.org.
The National Playwrights Conference, the O?Neill?s founding program, was launched in 1964. Playwrights 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.Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director of the National Playwrights Conference since 2005, noted, ?This Conference belongs to the playwrights, and I believe that it is imperative to allow the playwrights who submit their work the opportunity to have their plays read and considered seriously for the conference. I remain committed to the open submission process and it is a priority for the National Playwrights Conference to seek out the best writers through this endeavor.?
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. For more information about the O?Neill?s Wendy Wasserstein Fund, please call (860) 443-5378 ext. 213 or email theaterlives@theoneill.orgThe Eugene O?Neill Theater Center, founded in 1964 in honor of Eugene O?Neill, America?s only Nobel Prize-winning playwright and four-time Pulitzer Prize winner, is America?s preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for the American theater. It has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and 2,500 emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O?Neill have gone on to full productions at other theaters around the world, including Broadway, off-Broadway, and major regional theaters. From the 2011 NPC, Christina Anderson?s Good Goods will receive its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre in February 2012. Productions of works developed at the 2010 NPC include Roundabout Underground?s extended production of The Dream of the Burning Boy by David West Read, Premiere Stages? production of Follow Me To Nellie?s by Dominique Morisseau, Anne Washburn?s Devil At Noon being produced as part of the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville, and the upcoming Manhattan Theatre Club production of Molly Smith Metzler?s Close Up Space starring David Hyde Pierce and Michael Chernus. This production marks the 30th piece developed, under Goldberg's seven years of leadership, to go onto a world premiere production.
In addition to NPC, O?Neill programs include: National Music Theater Conference, National Puppetry Conference, the Cabaret & Performance Conference, National Critics Institute, and National Theater Institute, which conducts semester-long, fully accredited intensive theater training programs and Theatermakers, a six-week accredited summer program. 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. The O?Neill has received two Tony Awards - including the 2010 Regional Theatre Tony Award, the National Opera Award, the Jujamcyn Award for Theatre Excellence, and the Arts and Business Council Encore Award. For more information, please visit the O?Neill website, www.theoneill.org, call (860) 443- 5378 ext. 213 or email theaterlives@theoneill.org.
