Day 58 - Accepted to a Festival in NYC!

07/28/2012

As you may recall, Day 55 I sent my stuff to a director I know and love and she told me that she think it would a good fit for the theatre -- so I formally submitted to the theater via her :) Huzzah!

Even more huzzahish, I got my first formal acceptance to a festival! Day 39! A ten-minute play festival in Queens! Exclamation points!

Seriously, this is cool. They told us there were more than 200 submissions, so that feels pretty good. Definitely a banner week since I started this blog. First the great performance of my show last Friday, then the unbelievably awesome and kind note from Day 13, and now this to cap it off.

This festival is kind of like Battle of the Bands, but for theater nerds. Or to get even more nerdtastic, it's like Highlander. There can be only one. (I've never watched it, but people cut off heads and shit, right?)

Oh, and I got my copy of Rifftrax Reefer Madness. WIN.

Happy Saturday!

Comments

Bisha link

07/29/2012 6:56pm

So, what you're doing is awesome. And thank you for blogging about it, it's fun to see your successes roll in.

I have a question - do you have a big bad backlog of plays and samples that you're selecting appropriate choices from to match up to theatres?

I am thinking of embarking on this journey myself, though I would have to stick to European theatres / ones that accept international submissions.

Congrats again on all this great news!

Brian D.

07/29/2012 8:43pm

Hi Bisha - thank you so much!

Your timing is funny because I was actually in the process of writing tomorrow's blog, which does discuss picking and choosing scripts for various theaters! Funny coincidence :)

The short answer is I do have twenty-seven plays (14 full lengths and 13 one acts) that I choose from. Some are comedies, some are dramas, some have larger casts, some have doubling, etc. Sometimes I only have one play that fits what the theatre needs, but sometimes I get lucky and can choose from a couple :)

I'll go more into detail in my post for tomorrow (Day 60!).

Good luck in your submissions, and thank you for reading and for the kind words :)

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I submit. 365 days in a row.

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Sub·mit
Verb,
sub·mit·ted, sub·mit·ting.
1. to give over or yield to the power or authority of another
2. to subject to some kind of treatment or influence.
3. to present for the approval, consideration, or decision of another

If you are a playwright (or any author, really), you know that submissions are a necessary evil. Finding theaters that are open to submission, cover letters, synopses, 10, 15, 20 page samples, "reading fees", "hard copy only", include a SASE, vague questions about "how you will affect the community" or asking you to "tell us a little bit about yourself". And you can't really cut and paste too much, because each theatre has a different aesthetic, different goals, different questions.

Oh, and you literally have about a 99.98% rejection rate.

It sucks. But we all must do it. And too often I put it off, telling myself I'll do it later or that I shouldn't bother because I'll just get rejected anyway.

I used to be a slush reader for a literary magazine, and I truly empathize with theaters who read through hundreds and thousands of scripts. I know there is no easy answer, and I do not plan on talking shit about theaters on here. But I just wanted to a) motivate myself by setting a strict regimen and b) share my experiences and thoughts about the submission process, because I've learned that everyone hates this part of the job.

The Rules

Every day for a year, starting on 01 June 2012, I will submit a play, writing sample, or Letter of Inquiry to a theater or competition. Do I have 365 theaters in mind? Nope. But I will make it happen.