How to Submit a Play to a Competition

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Laura Turner, and today, I'm going to talk to you about how to submit a play to a competition. So, you've written your play and you've hopefully rewritten your play, and you've hopefully gotten people to read your play and give you feedback on it, and now, you're finally ready to submit your play to a competition. First, you have to, of course, get all the information on that competition. Know exactly where you're going to be sending this play. What requirements there are, as far as page page requirements go; is it going to be a one act play no more than forty pages, is it going to be a two act play no more than one hundred and twenty pages, something like that. If there is a fee how much is the fee, and you know, where should you address the check, and of course, how many copies do they want of your play? And then, think about how much money it's going to be to send all these copies to these people, and really think about do you have the money? Next, do they want the whole, the whole manuscript, or just a synopsis? Don't send anything that they do not solicit from you, unless you of course have an agent who's been talking to them, and is going to send it for you. Really, don't send your entire play if the contest asks specifically just for a synopsis and character breakdown. Next, look at the past winners of the competition, and see if you have anything along the lines of what was previously produced, or anything in common with the plays that were previously produced, because you definitely don't want to waste your time submitting to a production company that does a certain kind of play that you just don't write. And finally, include all these materials with a self-addressed, stamped envelope on the inside, so that your work can; unfortunately, be sent back to you if they do not choose it. Some competitions don't actually afford you the luxury of getting your manuscript back, but if they do definitely send that SASE. And that's my advice for submitting a play to your competition."