Join PlayGround-NY’s Inaugural Writers Pool!

Are you a New York-based early-career or aspiring professional playwright? Have you ever wanted to see your plays performed on stage by leading local professional actors? Do you respond well to deadlines?

PlayGround is seeking applications for our inaugural (2021-22) PlayGround-NY Writers Pool. Only members of the Writers Pool are invited to submit for the Monday Night PlayGround short play staged reading series, from which each year’s Best of PlayGround are selected. PlayGround releases a prompt on a Friday morning and writers have just four-and-a-half days to write an original ten-minute play inspired by the prompt. Of the submitted scripts, 6 get chosen for a fully-staged, partly-teched, script-in-hand reading led by leading local directors and actors, on  fourth Mondays, October-March. Writers not chosen in any given month can participate in PlayGround Recess, with the opportunity to hear their work read aloud by professional actors and receive peer feedback in a private setting. Submissions are due by 11:59pm (ET) on Sunday, August 15, 2021 (EXTENDED DEADLINE). BIPOC, trans/gender non-conforming & differently-abled writers are encouraged to apply!

The PlayGround Writers Pool has featured some of the nation’s most distinguished new writers of the past two decades, including Lauren Yee, Christopher Chen, Aaron Loeb, Geetha Reddy, Vincent Terrell Durham, and Diana Burbano, among others.

POOL REQUIREMENTS

To be eligible, writers must reside within the five burroughs of New York City. To apply for a place in the 2021-22 writers pool, please submit your short (ten-page max) double-spaced script (previously produced and unproduced scripts eligible) as a Portable Document Format (.pdf) attachment via the following Google form: https://forms.gle/HqPdsFL5opTkQDS8A. Excerpts from longer works are not accepted but short plays that meet the above requirements and are derived from a longer work are accepted. BIPOC, trans/gender-non-conforming & differently-abled are encouraged to apply. Submissions are due by 11:59pm (ET) on August 15, 2021 (EXTENDED DEADLINE). The 2021-22 PlayGround Writers Pool will be announced on or before September 15, 2021 and all selected writers must attend a mandatory Company Meeting on Sunday, September 19, 2021  (time to be confirmed).

Applications must be received by 11:59pm ET on Sunday, August 15, 2021 (EXTENDED DEADLINE. The script must have the playwright’s name, address, email and phone number at the top of the first page and include a detailed cast breakdown, and all pages must be numbered. The script title must be labeled “Lastname, Firstname_Title.”

There will be a mandatory meeting for the Writers Pool on Sunday, September 19, 2021 (time to be confirmed). Writers Pool members must commit to submitting for at least four of the six Monday Night PlayGrounds in any season. The submission of a script to Monday Night PlayGround grants PlayGround the exclusive option to stage the play as part of the Monday Night PlayGround and, should it be so selected, as part of Best of PlayGround and the non-exclusive right to publish the script in the “Best of PlayGround” anthology.

For any questions not answered above, email to info@playground-ny.org.