Playwrights

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

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PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR SCRIPT

One of the main goals of AVT is to produce original work by playwrights local to Quartz Hill and the Antelope Valley. Seeing your play undergo the production process gives you a great insight into how your script might be interpreted by a director and actors.

Additionally, concepts that are impractical from a technical perspective will need to be ironed out in the first production, allowing you the chance to perceive the strengths and drawbacks of your script’s technical feasibility. The feedback you will receive from the cast, crew, and audience will provide invaluable information as you put the final touches on your manuscript before offering it up for publication.

Being accepted for production is also a great way to show a publisher that the theatre community takes your work seriously enough to stake a significant investment of time and money to produce it.

AVT currently offers three different outlets for original work, based on where you are in the playwrighting process. The cultivation of a new, produceable, quality script can be a long and involved process; AVT is there with people, tools, and ideas to help you along the way.

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WORKSHOP

Firstly, you can submit unfinished or early-stage work to be considered for inclusion in a Workshop with AVT’s production team. Workshops involve readings of any dialog by AVT actors in an informal setting, as well as ideas and feedback on the play’s concept, themes, and characters. Feedback will be provided by AVT’s directors, dramaturg, and technical crew, if requested. Workshops are closed to the general public, and provide the playwright with useful theatrical perspective during the earlier phases of crafting a new play.

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EXPO

Second, you can exhibit your short-plays or scenes at our Playwrights Expos, which we hope to hold every few months. Each script selected for expo will be given a staged reading, limited direction, and time for discussion with feedback from actors, techies, directors, fellow writers, audience members, and the company dramaturg. Expo submissions should be scripted and workable on the stage, though perhaps not quite ready for full production.

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PRODUCTION

Alternatively, you can submit a complete play for full production consideration. If your script is refined enough that you might consider attempting to publish it in the relatively near future, it may be at the right stage for submission to an experimental theatre group such as our own for a test run. Preference will be given to local writers who have participated in a Workshop or Expo.

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SELECTION FOR FULL PRODUCTION

AVT’s dramaturgical philosophy is character-driven, unique, and thought-provoking.

AVT’s dramaturg analyzes all incoming scripts, published or original, and then forwards the script along with her recommendation and analysis to the company’s Producing Director and Artistic Director. Should these directors agree that the work is ready for full production, that it aligns with AVT’s artistic philosophy, and that a production is practical given our resources, then the Producing Director will open royalty negotiations with the playwright.

It is AVT’s policy to duly pay a fair royalty to our playwrights for production of their work. We consider the going market rate for published plays, the record of the playwright in creating work for AVT, and also the financial risk involved with staging a new, experimental production that is unfamiliar to the theatre-going community.

AVT may also from time to time post a competitive call-for-scripts. These are intended to spur submissions on a particular theme, and will be accompanied by incentives or compensation for winning writers.

Email the dramaturg, Anna Delrosario (anna@avthespians.org), with any questions or to submit original work.