*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***




THE MAXIM MAZUMDAR NEW PLAY COMPETITION
Full-Length Play/Musical
— 90 minutes or more, requiring no more than 10 performers
— Finalists will be notified approximately November 1, 2020
— Winning play will be announced approximately December 1, 2020 and will receive its premiere production in the 2021/22 Alleyway season. The playwright will receive an award/royalty prize of $500.

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In an effort to present original content in a unique way, Theatre Three, is seeking short plays to be produced as part of a series of online works. Ideally, the pieces are written or re-conceived for an online platform. We hope that writers will see the constraints of the format as a way to tell stories in a different way. 

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Green Stories seeks 10 minutes episodes
Length: 3 – 15 ten minute episodes of 8-10 minutes each (suitable for new platform Quibi – designed for mobile phones)
Eligibility: Open to all, as long as it has not been published elsewhere. All submissions must be in English and conform to the green stories criteria of showing a positive vision of what a sustainable society might look like or in some way smuggling in green solutions/policies/characters in the context of an otherwise mainstream story.


*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***



*** THEATER OPTIMISM ***


Buffalo Theatre Ensemble's Friday announcement of its 2020-2021 season was accompanied by an expression of hope and optimism from artistic director Connie Canaday Howard.

"We know our audiences share our love of theater, an art form that uniquely allows us into others' realities, enhancing understanding for our lives as well as others we had not before imagined. All three plays in our season provide heartwarming looks, sometimes touching and sometimes hysterical, at people on the brink of great change -- themes that have never seemed more relevant than now," she said in a prepared statement.

More...


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“Fluid” seems to be the word of choice for some theatres as they end a spring schedule that never was, and look toward summer and fall slates that increasingly look like they may never be. Optimism—to the extent it exists at all—floats on a spectrum between “cautiously” and “overly,” while realistic expectations and projections change by the minute.

As recently as yesterday morning, for instance, the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s website was adorned with a banner declaring “the festival curtain will rise this summer”—a banner that has since been removed, replaced by the news that Utah Shakes will in fact not produce this summer. While many summer festival theatres have similarly canceled their summer seasons, from Oregon Shakes to Alabama Shakes to New York City’s Shakespeare in the Park, the St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre (the Muny) has set a June deadline to decide whether to go forward or not with a summer season, to start in July at their 11,000-seat amphitheatre. And in Massachusetts, Barrington Stage Company has announced a “socially distanced” season to bow in August.

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Staying creative while also staying safe at home is not as easy as it might seem. And even though William Shakespeare wrote the transcendent “King Lear” during a lockdown because of the plague, remember, that was a pretty grim tragedy.

We checked in with a handful of theater couples — actors, playwrights, directors, and designers — to see how they are surviving, adapting, and creating, all while maintaining their optimism about theater on the other side of the pandemic.

Davron S. Monroe and Kaedon Gray are both mainstays of Boston’s musical theater scene. Monroe was seen most recently in “Caroline, or Change,” while Gray appeared in “The Rocky Horror Show,” both at Moonbox Productions. But the couple say they never compete for the same roles.

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Coronavirus has been the latest chapter in the Bolshoi's eventful history. Now the legendary home of Russian ballet and opera is making plans to stage performances in the fall—the situation with the pandemic permitting.

In an interview with AFP, published by the Moscow Times, the general director of Moscow's Bolshoi Theater, Vladimir Urin, spoke of an "optimistic scenario" in which rehearsals could resume in July.

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Broadway alum Christy Altomare dropped by R&H Goes Live! May 6 to perform a modern take on “A Cockeyed Optimist” from Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific. Catch the live stream above.

“I love this song because it teaches us that, amidst times that may feel scary, you can choose to be optimistic,” said Altomare prior to the performance. “Even during the darkest of times we can still look to the future with light and hope in our hearts!”

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What do you get when you put 13 guys who love to sing alone with a piano? You’ll have to see for yourself to find out, but we’re pretty sure you’ll be manically optimistic about it! The Manic Optimists are Bates’ newest all-male a cappella group, performing a wide variety of current hits and classic favorites. We perform constantly throughout the year, at Bates, at other schools, and anywhere else they’ll have us, from the Boston Common to Sugarloaf ski resort and beyond! So what do you say? Do you have what it takes to be a ManOp? Audition this fall and find out! Visit our Facebook Page or our website!

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The pandemic has muted local playhouses. Since it’s uncertain when and how a reopening might occur, all theatrical companies are struggling with what their futures might be. They also have some positive outlooks for what comes next.

“I’m an eternal, pragmatic optimist,” Chad Swan-Badgero, artistic director of Peppermint Creek Theatre Co., said. “So I certainly hope we can all return for the start of the season in the fall.”

Swan-Badgero believes people will be cautious and eager to return to theaters when they reopen. “I think audiences and theater-makers are going to come back to the craft of theater much more appreciative of our time together."

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I own a pen that can write under water


It can write other words too