New Plays from the Heartland

Heartland Theatre Company's
One-Act Play Midwest Competition

Competition Rules

1. A completed entry form is required to accompany your play in this competition. The form includes a browser for uploading your play submission. Only electronic submissions are accepted. We accept play scripts in MS Word (.doc), Rich Text Format (.rtf) or PDF. If you are using play writing software that only saves your play in a pdf format, be sure that your name is nowhere on the script and that it is simply attached as a file to your entry form.
   
   
2. We will accept submissions until May 1, 2012.
   
   
3. This competition is for one-act plays by Midwest writers only. We define, for this competition, the Midwest as the following nine states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. Your primary residence must be in one of these states to be eligible to participate. However, student writers who have studied at a college in any of these states for at least two complete academic years are eligible to submit. There is no cash prize for winning playwrights, but a waiver of workshop fee to participate in the master class with a national playwright (to be named by February 15, 2012,) and a staged reading of the winning plays will be offered.
   
   An honorarium of $150 will be provided to the three winning playwrights to offset expenses of those intending to participate in the workshop and see the staging of their plays.
   
   
4. The theme for the plays this year is: "Summer in the Heartland." All plays submitted must be related to this concept. We are a small theatre, open on three sides, and those plays most likely to qualify will be continuous in their action, simple in their staging needs and those which rely on stock and standard furniture pieces. Musical theatre pieces and children's theatre plays will not be considered as eligible for this competition.
   
   
5. Three plays will be declared winner of this year's competition and a staged reading of the plays will be performed on Friday, July 13 and Saturday, July 14, 2012 at 7:30 pm. The master class for winning playwrights will be the afternoon of Friday, July 13, with the forum for playwrights open to the public the evening of Thursday, July 12.
   
   
6. Plays submitted must NOT exceed 35 minutes in duration or be fewer than 15 minutes in playing time. As a rough guideline, each typed page reads as about 2 minutes of playing time. You may use up to six characters in your play of any gender. You may elect to use as few as two characters, but no one-person plays or "monologues" will be eligible. Once you are near finishing your play it would be a good idea to have friends read through it with you to see what the running time of the play is before you send it to us.
   
   
7. Entries submitted must NOT have been previously published or produced. Your entrance into this competition waives any royalty rights to the staged reading of the play. You will be provided a DVD version of the reading. Your permission to transfer your staged reading to a DVD format is understood as part of your participation in the competition. We will not under any circumstance sell or give DVD's to anyone other than those affiliated in bringing your writing to a staged reading status.
   
   
8. Entries must be typed, with the name of your play and the correct page number on every page you submit. The plays will be judged by a numbering system and no mention of the writer's name will be made available to the adjudicators until the winning three plays have been chosen.
   
   
9. Entries will NOT be returned.
   
   
10. Entrants may not submit more than one play.
    
    
11. The Adjudicators' decisions are final. Judging criteria
    
    
12. All submissions will be confirmed, and winners ONLY will be notified. Winners will be posted on our website at www.heartlandtheatre.org no later than June 1, 2012.

Learn more about the theatre space.

Return to the New Plays main page

Use the online entry form to submit your play and your contact information.

For more information call Heartland's Box Office at 309/452-8709 or newplays@heartlandtheatre.org