TERMS:  Plays may not have had an Equity run, nor be available for royalty payments through a major publishing house at time of submission.  Equity workshop, showcase, or other non-equity shows are okay. All plays will be read blind, with the author's name redacted. All work must be of a human biological imagination. Please do not send plays containing machine-compiled text.

LENGTH:   Less than 40 pages if properly formatted (see suggestions). SUBJECT:  Open.

DEADLINE:  The first 75 entries received before December 31, 2023

FEE:  $ 10.00 per play, no limit on number of entries

AWARD:  A $200.00 award is given to the best overall play.  Several additional plays are named as finalists, and a number of plays are recognized yearly for artistic merit.  Recognized plays may receive full performances or staged readings during the course of the calendar year 2024 at the Nantucket Short Play Festival or related venues.  Readings are directed, rehearsed, and usually employ some blocking, sets, props, and costumes.  No specific dates or venues are set for the festival as we spread performances out throughout the year.  We make every attempt to notify the playwrights of results and potential performances with as much lead time as possible.

CONSENT:  Nantucket Theatrical Productions may perform armchair or staged readings of your play in the context of its judging process, festival, or related venues during the calendar year 2024.  We occasionally also perform archived plays at later dates, in which case NTP will attempt to contact the playwright by e-mail and or telephone, in order to give the opportunity to attend or receive royalties in case of full performance, but reserves the above-mentioned right to perform staged reading publicly if reasonable attempts to notify the playwright have failed. Playwright retains all other performance or publication rights.  Playwright may withdraw a play from consideration at any time by notifying us.

NOTIFICATION:  By April 1, 2024.

HOW TO ENTER:

Please submit the following:

1)  WORD or PDF file of your play via "Entry Form" button above or this EMAIL .

Name, address, phone, email, website (if any), and copyright notice should appear on title page. If you have no other option, see below for address to send hard copy.

At your discretion, you may send as a separate file brief cover letter including your name and address, email address, titles of plays submitted, resume/play history.

2)  ENTRY FEE is $10.00 per play, preferably via "$10 per Play" button above. See below if you need to send a paper check.

We will confirm receipt and send results by EMAIL ONLY.   Please make sure your email client does not block us or put us in spam folder.

If you must send hard copy of a play, or pay by check, please make payable to "Nantucket Short Play Group" and send to:

NANTUCKET SHORT PLAY COMPETITION

PO BOX 3390

Nantucket, MA 02584-3390

Attn:  Pete Sendelbach; Artistic Director

SUGGESTIONS (By Jim Patrick):

Subject:  Any subject, any style. We feel that compelling characters are still at the heart of theatre.  Engage us with the people, intrigue us with the conflict, entertain us with the dialogue, surprise us with the resolution, make us think after we've put it down, and you've probably written a good play.

Length:   PLEASE  DO NOT send plays longer than 40 pages in the format suggested below. We will not consider longer plays for any reason.  Our reasons are twofold: we can devote our resources to exposing more playwrights' works to the public in the short play format; and having set a length limit, it is unfair to judge longer plays against those that meet the guidelines.

Production considerations:  Less is better.  We select finalists strictly on the quality of the writing.  However, simplicity enhances the likelihood of us being able to produce it.  

FORMAT

Title page should include the play title, your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, website if you have one, and a copyright notice.  Make it as convenient as possible for us to reach you when we want to do your play.

Set description, time and place, and complete character list with very brief descriptions

should appear on the next page, before the beginning of text.  These descriptions can actually be a great opportunity to pique a reader's interest.  Brief, evocative, perhaps even quirky descriptions give the reader a hint at your imagination.   However - many of the best plays have very sparse descriptions (like gender and age only) - and simply let the characters speak for themselves.

Well spaced, darkly printed, clearly legible.  Type size (12 point for text) and style are essential.  Actors have to read these under poor lighting conditions, and while trying to move on stage and concentrate on the other actors.   Straining to read the script can seriously mar a performance.  Parenthetical actor’s business notes (particularly when placed within the dialogue, like this) clutter the script, and are usually unnecessary if the writing is evocative.  They are the number one reason for poor armchair readings!   They slow down or confuse the readers, and dilute the impact of the dialogue.

A good format is:  Character name centered.  Dialogue single-spaced below that, with margins about 2" from left edge of page and 1" from right.  Double-spaced between characters’ lines and/or stage directions.  Stage directions are single spaced and start about 3" from left margin and go to about a 1" right hand margin.  Character names within stage directions are capitalized. All of this effort is so that dialogue is visually distinguishable from stage directions, and so that characters can easily find their lines and business.   It is of immense help to directors and tech people when marking notes for light or sound cues, entrances or exits, or other actions.