Barter Theatre to Host 14th Annual Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, 7/7-14; Submission Deadline 3/3

Barter Theatre's 14th Annual Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights (AFPP) will take place July 7th through July 14th, 2014. Submissions of new Appalachian-themed plays or plays by an Appalachian author may be submitted until March 3rd, 2014, for possible inclusion in the festival.

Founded in 2001, Barter's AFPP provides an outlet for new plays and playwrights with a distinctly Appalachian voice. Any original play that has not been published or professionally produced may be submitted for consideration. Past successes from the AFPP include local playwright Doug Pote's Keep on the Sunny Side and Man of Constant Sorrow, Kentucky native Catherine Bush's Walking Across Egypt, Frank Higgins', Black Pearl Sings, and Ron Osborne's First Baptist of Ivy Gap. Many of these plays have gone on to production in theatres across the country.

Director of the AFPP, Nicholas Piper said, "Barter Theatre hopes this process will shed new light on the plays allowing the playwright to further develop their work."

The annual AFFP process begins with the selection of six plays that are given staged readings by Barter's professional acting company. Following each reading, there is a discussion of the play with the Festival Panel (made up of local and regional theatre professionals) and the attending audience.

Selected plays from the readings may be given mini-productions (fully produced but with minimal technical elements) the following year and may even go on to full productions on one of Barter's two stages.

The 2013 reading selected for mini-production is Winter Wheat by Catherine Bush and Ben Mackel, a new musical examining the suffragette movement of 1919. It will play eight performances throughout the 2014 AFPP.

Play submission guidelines are as follows: plays must be written by an Appalachian playwright (defined as currently living in the Appalachian Mountains that run from New York State to Alabama) OR the plays must contain Appalachian settings and themes. Full-length plays are preferred.

The playwrights of the six selected plays will each receive $250 plus transportation and housing so they may attend the reading.

Plays must be received by March 3rd, 2014. Send plays to: Nick Piper, Director, Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, P.O. Box 867, Abingdon, VA 24212. We are now accepting email submissions! Send a brief synopsis and a pdf. file of your script to: apfestival@bartertheatre.com For more information on the AFPP, go to the Barter Theatre Web site at: www.bartertheatre.com.

BARTER THEATRE. With its unique beginnings during the Great Depression, Barter Theatre, one of this nation's oldest professional non-profit theatres, is located in beautiful historic Abingdon, Virginia. Barter Theatre is a theatre of firsts: one of this nation's first professional regional theatres, the first professional theatre to be designated a state theatre - The State Theatre of Virginia and more. Today, Barter offers a variety of musicals, classics, comedies, dramas and new southern and Appalachian plays performed February - December yearly on two stages: Barter Theatre and Barter Stage II. Barter Theatre continues to be one of the nation's most vibrant and exciting professional theatre experiences.