Stella Adler's Harold Clurman Playwrights Division Announces New Play Search

The Harold Clurman Playwrights Division, a program of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting's Lab Theater, is now accepting new play submissions. In the second annual search for ten-minute plays with social impact, the division is calling for plays that address one of three themes: global gender violence, the environmental crisis, the school to prison pipeline.

In early 2014, Harold Clurman Playwrights Division sought ten-minute plays with social impact. Two topics were curated by Artistic Director Tom Oppenheim and Director of Cultural Programming Nina Capelli. Over sixty plays were received and screened by a committee of the studio's upperclassmen, alumni and staff. Seven plays were read on Monday, October 20, 2014 as part of the Harold Clurman Festival of the Arts, an annual event that highlights the relationship between art and social activism. The event was free and open to the public. After the reading, audience members were invited to propose topics to be addressed in the next round of ten-minute plays. The audience resoundingly expressed interest in the three chosen themes.

Said Director of Cultural Programming Nina Capelli, "The Playwrights Division does not seek the development of political material but rather seeks to encourage the creation of art that strikes a human chord while addressing the vital issues of our time, in the same way that Arthur Miller's The Crucible, August Wilson's Fences and Tony Kushner's Angels in America capture the zeitgeist of theirs. We look forward to the opportunity to encounter playwrights and new works and to find ways to respond to issues about which we can no longer remain silent."

Submissions will be accepted now through March 2, 2015. Guidelines can be read online at www.stellaadler.com/cultural-center/playwrights-division/.

THE HAROLD CLURMAN LABORATORY THEATER COMPANY is the Stella Adler Studio of Acting's/Art of Acting Studio's professional theater company. The Lab aims to produce socially relevant theater committed to the standards and ideals set out by Stella Adler, Harold Clurman and the Group Theater. The mission of the Lab is to provide the community, through theater and discussion, with a place of exploration and experimentation of what it means be a human being. Select production history: Mercy Killers by Michael Milligan (Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2013, Fringe First Award), Lebensraum by Israel Horovitz (off-Broadway, Ovation-Nominated in Los Angeles), Long Way Go Down by Zayd Dohrn (West Coast premiere, Ovation Award Nominee), Our Town by Thornton Wilder, What Shall I Give My Children? by Don K. Williams (world premiere).