Submitting a Play or Musical to a Theatre
There are many opportunities for this to happen, here are just a few:
If you write musicals, then there is a very good resource for you to join with, or become aware of. The Musical Writerzine by Carol DeGuire has been an exceptional help in discovering quarterly who is accepting what and from whom. VISIT:(www.musicalwriters.com)
For writers of all sorts of theatrical enterprises the New Play Exchange offers a lot of visibility for your product. You register as a writer (I think it’s a $10 yearly fee). It is a database with notifications depending on what you select as categories. You will get email notifications from the producers/theatres who are listed and looking for new plays like the ones you write. VISIT: https://newplayexchange.org/
Also Ken Davenport, a Broadway/Off-Broadway producer of note (GODSPELL, THE VISIT, KINKY BOOTS, & DADDY LONG LEGS, SPRING AWAKENING, ALLEGIANCE, to name a very few — also recently named as Executive Producer for North America at the Really Useful Group [Andrew Lloyd-Webber]) — offers many services (some free) at his Producer’s Perspective site. (https://www.theproducersperspective.com/) He offers a lot of insight into the world of Broadway (and beyond). His podcasts and blogs are of special interest. He also takes script submissions, and has a database where you can register as a writer or director.
If you want to submit to a certain Theatre Company, then it is always best to search that company’s site for submission information: dates submissions are taken, whom to submit your material to (dramaturg, artistic director, play selection committee — or other — get a name if you can! — make your cover letter/email stand out by personalizing it), types of material they are looking for, types of material they are NOT looking for. Suggestion: do check on the plays and musicals they have produced, study their mission statement and who they are as a theatre company — then you can see if your title can fit their mission — and you market it that way. What can your play/musical do for them? That’s a pretty good hook. Compare your show to shows they have already produced, not in quality (don’t toot your own horn too much) but in style, audience base, familiarity or uniqueness of the piece. Relate to them without too much buttering up. No one likes a slice of bread with too much butter.
Be sure to track your submissions, having seen the length of their response time, contact them about a week after that time expires to see if they have gotten to your project yet. But don’t badger them. Respect their time.
It is a long process, sometimes an involved one, and you have to get used to waiting; but you can succeed at it if you are willing to take the time and put effort into it to get it as right as you can.
—C. Michael Perry
© 2017 by C. Michael Perry ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
May be used for classroom/educational purposes
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