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*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***
PSA, the Journal of the Pirandello Society of America (www.pirandellosociety.org/psa-journal),
seeks submissions of short dramatic pieces (5 to 30 minutes of expected
performance time) inspired by Luigi Pirandello’s short stories, for publication
in the next or future issues.
Dramaturgies could take several shapes such as:
1. adaptations for the stage of a single short story
2. adaptations that combine two or three stories
3. dramatic development of a section of a short story
4. monologues/dialogues of characters who appear in the short stories
5. dramatic situations that entail the reading/recitation of passages from the
short stories
***
Live & In Color is looking for playwrights, composers, and lyricists of
color and/or other underrepresented communities interested in developing their
new musical in the Fall of 2024. The selected musical submission will have a
two-week workshop in the fall at The Bingham Camp in Salem, Connecticut
culminating in a staged presentation to an invited audience.
MUSICAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
The musical must be performed:
- with 4 actors (or less)
All submissions should include:
- Single page synopsis
- Single page character breakdown
- Demo of score (2-3 songs)
- Sample of dialogue (~15 pages)
- Brief production/development history (properties with prior full
productions not accepted)
***
Voices of Women Theatre Festival 2024
Submit Your 10-Minute or 60-Minute Play
In conjunction with Women’s History Month, Powerstories Theatre is proud to
host the fourth annual international Voices of Women Theatre Festival live in
the USF College of the Arts and online, utilizing our season theme, “Critical
Issues Take Center Stage.”
As part of our 2024 Season, we will be doing a hybrid program – a combination
of in-theatre staged reading productions during the first week and digital,
view-on-demand performances in the second week. The international festival
offers an artistic platform empowering, encouraging, and enabling diverse
voices to inspire audiences worldwide through the gift of sharing strong voices
and meaningful stories. Powerstories is proud to provide opportunities for
artists and playwrights of all genres to share their original short and
full-length plays and musicals with our expanding community and audiences near
and far.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site
at https://www.nycplaywrights.org
***
*** WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME ***
“What the Constitution Means to Me,” a challenging exploration of American
legal history sparked by a student oratory competition, will be the most
produced play at U.S. theaters this season, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
The play, written by Heidi Schreck, will have at least 16 productions around
the country, according to a count by American Theater magazine.
The magazine conducts an annual survey of theaters to determine which shows,
and which playwrights, are most popular. Productions of “A Christmas Carol” and
works by Shakespeare, which are always widely staged, are excluded. The survey
covers theaters that are members of the Theater Communications Group, the
national nonprofit organization that publishes the magazine.
“What the Constitution Means to Me” was staged on Broadway in 2019, with Schreck
starring, and it was filmed for Amazon. (The play has a three-person cast,
including a young person who debates the lead actress about the merits of the
Constitution.)
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/18/theater/what-the-constitution-means-to-me-most-staged-play.html
***
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
'What the Constitution Means to Me' playwright and star Heidi Schreck has a
long, personal relationship with the document that begins 'We the People.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjybjCD2a9k
***
Broadway's What the Constitution Means to Me | Talks at Google
Heidi Schreck, Mike Iveson, Thursday Williams, and Rosdely Ciprian from the
Broadway production of What the Constitution Means to Me discuss their
groundbreaking play. The play was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for
Drama.
Direct from its revolutionary Off-Broadway run, "WHAT THE CONSTITUTION
MEANS TO ME" has arrived on Broadway for a limited engagement. This
boundary-breaking play breathes new life into our Constitution and imagines how
it will shape the next generation of American women.
Fifteen-year-old Heidi Schreck earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional
debate competitions across the United States. Now, the Obie Award winner
recalls her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between
four generations of women in her own family and the founding document that
dictated their rights and citizenship. This hilarious, hopeful and
"achingly human" (Exeunt Magazine) exploration features Schreck
alongside Mike Iveson, Rosdely Ciprian and Thursday Williams and is directed by
Obie Award winner Oliver Butler.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Lok9jIfqc
***
After enjoying an acclaimed extended off-Broadway run, Heidi Schreck’s
elaborate public debate experiment, What the Constitution Means to Me, has
finally bowed on Broadway. The move to Broadway bestows a bit of pomp on the
proceedings that may be a little paradoxical. In fact, Schreck’s entire project
is to de-pompify the US Constitution — to remove some of its mystique and
attempt to reinvigorate the creaky living document.
Schreck does this primarily by enlisting that most energized and impassioned of
citizens to help her: the teenage girl. For most of the play, the teenager in
question is Schreck herself, bringing all the ebullience of a typical teen
girl, in her case one obsessed with witches, theater, and Patrick Swayze in
Dirty Dancing. For the final third, she debates one of two actual teenagers,
freshman Rosdely Ciprian and senior Thursday Williams. A champion debater in
high school, Schreck paid for her college tuition by debating the merits of the
Constitution through a string of American Legion competitions — a time she
clearly sees as a nostalgic moment when 15-year-old her began to own her ideas
and her self-expression.
Though Schreck is in some sense an unreliable narrator, we believe in the
portrait she presents of her younger, vibrant, and earnest self. By upfronting
her hardworking ability to pay her way through college, she deliberately frames
her younger counterpart as an idealized character, an emblem of the American
dream. Who better, then, she suggests, to guide us through a meditation on
democracy?
More...
https://www.vox.com/2019/4/17/18310288/what-the-constitution-means-to-me-review-heidi-schreck
***
On a recent Thursday, in a sunny rehearsal space downtown, the playwright,
actor, and TV writer Heidi Schreck stood near a lectern draped with
red-white-and-blue bunting. She was rehearsing a work in progress, “What the
Constitution Means to Me,” onstage now at the Wild Project, in Summerworks,
Clubbed Thumb’s annual festival of new plays. She spoke to the audience with
friendly authority. “When I was in high school, I earned all the money I
eventually used to pay for college by doing speeches about the Constitution
across the country,” she begins. “I would travel from American Legion hall to
American Legion hall, in big cities like Denver or Sacramento, to give speeches
about the Constitution, win the money, and put it in a safe-deposit box.” Her
competing in the American Legion’s lucrative annual competition was a scheme
cooked up by her parents, a high-school debate coach and a high-school history
teacher, to help her gain confidence and tuition money at once.
More...
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/sarah-larson/in-heidi-schrecks-new-play-teen-girls-talk-about-the-constitution
***
GO BEHIND THE CURTAIN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE US CONSTITUTION
The Gilder Lehrman Institute has collaborated with the producers of the
exciting new Broadway play What the Constitution Means to Me by playwright and
two-time Obie Award–winning actor Heidi Schreck, showing at the Helen Hayes
Theater, to reveal how the US Constitution came to be, how it has evolved, and
how it affects our lives every day. Explore the links below for Civil Rights,
Constitutional Convention and Ratification, Freedom of Speech and Assembly,
Impeachment, Women's Rights.
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/curriculum/what-constitution-means-me
***
Does being an actress make you more cognizant of the female roles in your
plays?
Yes, absolutely. There are all kinds of terrific female roles out there. There
are also terrible female roles. And, when I was acting more often, I went and
auditioned for some of those terrible female roles, and it definitely ignited a
fire in me to write only the most interesting female roles I possibly could. I
like to write complicated, weird women because those are the kind of parts I
would want to play. That’s always very important to me. Especially since
there’s a surplus of incredible actresses in their 30s to early 40s. There are
so many brilliant women, and I just felt like there needed to be more parts for
these women because there’s not enough work for the amount of talent.
And you’re combining the acting and writing soon?
In January I’m doing this solo play that I wrote called What the Constitution
Means to Me. It’s an evening of me talking about the Constitution. I hope it’s
funny.
There’s a lot of comedy to be mined in the Constitution.
There’s a lot of comedy.
More...
https://www.theintervalny.com/interviews/2014/09/an-interview-with-heidi-schreck/
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