Civic Theatre Announces New Theatre Festival For 2021

Grand Rapids Civic Theatre today announced a new West Michigan theatre festival, set to take place throughout the Spring of 2021. The Ten for All Festival and playwrighting contest will feature original 10-minute plays from local playwrights.

"We are thrilled to present this unique festival as we move back toward in-person performance in 2021," said Executive and Artistic Director Bruce Tinker. "We are taking advantage of this unique opportunity to open our stage to the many talented playwrights we have right here in West Michigan."

The festival and playwrighting contest will take submissions from playwrights across West Michigan in the weeks ahead. From those submissions, 12 semi-finalists (three each from four categories: comedy, drama, youth, and wildcard) will have their plays featured in Zoom readings and scored by celebrity judges from around our community. From those 12, the top-scoring play in each of the four categories will move on to the finals and be publicly performed on stage at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre.

The finalists will be performed back-to-back as one hour-long program at the Meijer Majestic Theatre in April. Audience members will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite piece, and one play will receive the honor of Audience Choice. Cash prizes are being offered for the Audience Choice winner, finalists, and semifinalists.

"West Michigan is home to so many truly gifted artists and playwrights," said Associate Director Allyson Paris. "We are eager to lend their voices a platform and to open our space to them. Our community is at the core of our mission, and this is a unique opportunity for us to showcase that."

Submissions are open from now until February 26th. The semi-finals will take place March 18th - 21st, and the final performances will take place April 9th through April 11th. Information on tickets for final performances will be available in the weeks ahead. Details on submissions and further contest information is available at www.grct.org/tenforall.