Eugene O’Neill with his wife and daughter in Cape Cod, 1922. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The National Playwrights Conference is the preeminent laboratory for development of new plays. It is daunting to even think about the prospect of being one of 7 or so playwrights who will stay at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT for a month in the summer working on their baby, their play. Each selected play will undergo the O’Neill’s signature development process, employing acclaimed professional creative and support staff, including directors, dramaturgs, actors, and designers.
The selected works are chosen from among 1000 or more plays received through the O’Neill’s open submissions process, which allows any playwright – with or without agent representation – to submit. Readers from across the country choose works based on merit, without authorship attribution. My head swims at the prospect of emerging from this process as one of the anointed. After all, more than fifty plays developed during current artistic director Goldberg’s nine seasons have gone on to world premieres. It is the top of the top.
September 22 – I have sent off my submission by electronic means. There is a fee of $35. Plays can be sent in by snail mail or over the internet. I formatted my play as pdf file. They asked for my bio, and I sent off my entry. It shouldn’t be so humbling, but it is.
September 23 – I received notification that my application is complete, and that the play will now be sent off to a reader or readers somewhere in this land of ours. It’s goes off bare naked. No playwrights names are revealed in the evaluation period. Right now, I’m on an equal footing with the all the rest. I will be notified of who among us have reached the semi-finals (about 20% of those submitted).
Feb 1, 2014 – I received a very nicely worded notice that my play would not be included in the Conference.
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Best of luck on this one. Every submission is a nail biter, but for some submissions the anticipation is heightened. I bet this will be an ugly one to wait on.
Hi Jon – The conference isn’t until July-August of 2014, so there’s lots of time to wait. But that’s only if you’re one of those selected to attend. The rest will find out much sooner that they didn’t make it.
Good luck. It’s great that the submissions go off without a name on them. I’m reading stories for a journal now, and no matter what the cover letter and name attached to it can have a way of guiding a reader’s take on the piece.
Hi Jeri – I understand your comment about having a name on an application. It can skew everything in all kinds of ways. I think this Conference is doing a number of things to level the playing field. It’s important for applicants to believe they really have a chance.
Good for you Larry. Submissions are always so much work. Keeping my fingers crossed for you. 🙂