Austin Pendleton, Gretchen Cryer, Christine Toy Johnson & Charlayne Woodard to Judge HEAR ME OUT Monologue Competition

Hear Me Out New American Monologue Competition's founder Roland Tec has announced this year's Finalist Judges Gretchen Cryer, Christine Toy Johnson, Austin Pendleton, and Charlayne Woodard: all award-winning playwrights with equally masterful careers as performers. Following the success of last year's competition, the Hear Me Out New American Monologue Competition returns for a second season with twice the amount of cash prizes, totaling over $10,000. Submissions are FREE and open to everyone one, regardless of location, This year' s deadline is July 22, 2021 at noon (click here).

The hundreds of monologues submitted each year are first evaluated by a National Circle of Judges comprised of working playwrights, screenwriters, directors and actors. Each entry is evaluated and scored by at least two judges, who submit scores for each entry under 6 categories of evaluation: Character Development, Ear for Authentic Speech, Camouflage of Exposition, Thrilling Story, Dramatic Structure and Clever Use of Festival Theme. Based on the average scores, 12 finalist winners will be selected to premiere at the Labor Day Festival where the Finalist Judges will present the top prizes to the best of the fest.

This year's competition will feature two competitive divisions: Short Form Monologues (under 650 words) and Longer Form Monologues (word count between 750-1850). Writers are encouraged to write an original monologue in response to this year's festival prompt: BORDERS.

"BORDERS: We all live with them. Some are rooted in geography. Others in time, as in the line that separates Before from After. And some may be so personal we can scarcely dare to name them. No matter what sort of borders your characters face, their journey begins the moment they open their mouths and begin to speak."

Hear Me Out Monologues seeks to encourage exploration of the monologue form and continue to expand the audience for all new work. A key focus of the competition is nurturing the relationships between scriptwriters and their audiences. The relationship between a playwright and her audience is unique in its power. In no other art form does the writer receive immediate and continuously evolving audible feedback from their audience. In this way the playwright-audience relationship is closer and more intimate than most. The playwright knows immediately whether a particular beat in a scene in their play is working because they can hear it through the laughter, sighs, tears, gasps, or stunned silences that audiences respond with. That's in a traditional live in-person theatre. During the pandemic too many Zoom presentations silenced everyone who was not themselves a part of the performance. The result was an amputation of the key line of communication which normally flows from the audience directly to the writer and the audience itself during performance. All Hear Me Out Monologues presentations encourage the Unmuting of audience members who join the Zoom meeting equipped with headphones and/or earbuds. At this year's Labor Day Festival a limited number of premium "We Are Audience" (seen & heard) tickets are being made available for $22 to theatre lovers who wish to celebrate the essential quality of feeling the emotional reaction of an audience by hearing them as they experience the show for the first time. Tickets now on sale here. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/154545582999

The Hear Me Out New American Monologue Competition is presented by Pinkplot Productions with funding from the August van der Becq Family Foundation.

12 Finalist Winners will compete for the following awards and cash prizes Golden Ear & Earbud ($2,000 ea.), Silver Ear & Earbud ($750 ea.), The August van der Becq Memorial Prize for Daring ($2,001), Most Memorable Character Prize ($975 + 4 month scholarship for craft work in the RT Private Studio), Alvin Epstein Memorial Prize for Solo Performers ($1,524 + 30 hrs. of developmental workshop time with Roland Tec) for the piece most likely to draw new audiences to the form.

The Hear Me Out New American Monologue Competition

FREE Submission deadline is July 22, 2021. Full guidelines and submission portal click here.

Reservations for the Labor Day 'Borders" Festival of Monologues

can be made on Eventbrite by clicking here.

Webinar Level Tickets are $6, A limited number of "We Are Audience" (Seen & Heard) tickets will be made available to theatre lovers with headphones or earbuds at $22.