Update on the Play Contest

Amy Wegener of Actors Theatre of Louisville attended the June 7th meeting bringing solid advice and lots of encouragement about the play contest. Ms. Wegener's comments helped the judges clarify what was most important in choosing plays.

Discussion focused on questions like: from a practical standpoint can the play be produced in the space and with the resources available; are actors available for the roles; does the play sustain itself for its entire length; is diversity important in terms of such matters as where playwrights are from, gender (of playwrights and/or of the characters in their plays)? And so forth.

We did not read or discuss particular plays with Ms. Wegener. We did however, get into practical considerations regarding the contest such as venues in which to produce the selected plays (TBA after confirmation of the dates with the venue owner), the care and feeding of playwrights LOL:)! (contracts, contacting and working with out-of-area playwrights, etc.), where and how to find actors and directors for the plays we select and who, how and (even) whether or not to select a (single) winning play.

Though many of the questions were discussed at some length I'm not sure it is possible to say that we came up with many answers. In fact, it may be most accurate to say that we simply decided to defer conclusive answers to our next meeting on June 28th at 2:00 pm. Between June 7th and June 28th the final 15 plays will be read by all four judges with an eye towards selecting the final 6 to 10 plays that will ultimately be produced.

Once the finalists are chosen the playwrights will be contacted to notify them of their selection and to get formal permission to produce their work before winners names are posted on this blog and on the Playwrights Forum. Hopefully, posting of winners will happen sometime in mid-July or early August.

Pending confirmation of the dates and times production of the selected plays will be the second weekend in October 2009, October October 9, 10 and 11.

DON'T FORGET

Please don't forget that our next meeting will be Sunday June 7th at the Beaumont branch of the Lexington Public Library. Anyone-- whether they are a playwright or not-- is welcome to join us. Our speaker for this month's meeting is Amy Wegener of Actor's Theatre of Louisville who will discuss how to judge entries in a play contest.

517 Playwrights' first play contest "concluded" on March 11th with the submission of the 100th play. The group is now in the process of determining semifinalists that will be produced later this year. Ms. Wegener's advice and insights should help us conclude the judging phase of the process more quickly than might otherwise be the case.

The quality of plays submitted has been truly amazing! Thanks to all who submitted plays, my fellow judges and I have really enjoyed reading them. And if you did not submit, or did so after we had received 100 scripts, please submit next year. Information about next year's contest will be posted late this year or early in 2010.

Would you like your play televised?

If you were a playwright would you like to see your award winning play televised? When we began the play contest we thought we would pick the best few plays, find a few directors and actors and either do a staged reading or perhaps stage them. End of story.

Well, a little research and difficulty finding a suitable venue has lead to SOME (not much, admittedly) discussion about filming the plays and putting them on tv. This would mean that fewer plays could be selected, but that they'd get greater exposure. What do you think? Comment and let us know. Thanks very much.

ATL Literary Manager to Speak

Amy Wegener, Literary Manager of Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL) will speak at our June 7th meeting of 517 Playwrights. Ms. Wegener who has a large say in whose plays make it to the stage of Actors Theatre will discuss how to judge play contest entries.

The National 10 Minute Play Contest, sponsored in part by Actors Theatre of Louisville, receives hundreds of entries annually for just a few spots in the Humana Festival of New American Plays, and judging that contest is part of Ms. Wegener's job description. So 517 Playwrights is fortunate to have someone of her knowledge and skill to guide us as we get down to the final selection of plays for the First Annual 517 Playwrights 10 Minute Play Contest.

Our first 10 minute play contest, which received 100 entries in less than 6 weeks time, will be judged and semifinalists notified not later than July first of this year. Thereafter, we will begin looking for actors and directors to bring the plays to life on a Lexington stage.

If anyone is aware of a director who might want to be involved in this project please have him or her contact Bill McCann, Jr. at 859 940-9510. Thanks.

Join Us Sunday...

You do not need to be a playwright to be involved with 517 Playwrights so please join us this Sunday, May 17th, at 2 pm for our regular meeting. The meeting will be at the main branch of the Lexington Public Library on Main Street, across from the Downtown Arts Center. We will meet near the elevators on the 2nd floor, then find a quiet table to meet at. The meeting will begin promply at 2 pm; however, if you're running late we'll catch you up!

The agenda will primarily consist of reading and discussing scripts received for the 10-minute play contest. However, we will also discuss how to find directors and actors for the winning plays as well as where and when the plays will be either read and/or produced. The meeting will end no later than 5 pm (as that is when the Library will close).

Whether you've ever attended a meeting of 517 Playwrights or not, whether you are a playwright or not, you are welcome to join us for the Sunday and future meetings. Hope to see you Sunday at 2 pm.

May 17th Agenda

Our May 17th meeting is likely to a bit different than most of our meetings: in an effort to try and find the semifinalist plays we'll focus on reading and discussing submissions to the play contest. This of course will not be our last opportunity to judge submissions, or to discuss them. But, at least from my perspective, judging the submissions has been difficult work; the quality of scripts entered in the contest has been high, cutting down to only nine semi-finalists is going to be a hard job. We need this opportunity to discuss the plays that have been submitted.

So, even if you've never been to a meeting of 517 Playwrights, plan to come to this month's meeting. We will meet near the elevators on the second floor of the downtown (main) branch of the Lexington Public Library then find a quiet table where we can read and discuss submitted scripts. Please join us in finding the best nine (9) semifinalist plays possible.

May meeting

Just a reminder: the May meeting will be on Sunday May 17th at the main branch of the Lexington Public Library. The meeting will run from 2 to 5 pm. We'll meet on the second floor, near the elevators, then find a table to read scripts, discuss the play contest and conduct any other business. Please join us!