Berkshire Playwrights Lab's Inaugural Inaugural Radius Playwrights Festival Calling for Submissions!

Berkshire Playwrights Lab (BPL), in association with Saint James Place, invites submissions for the first-ever Radius Playwrights Festival. The Radius Playwrights Festival features new short plays created by local talent-anyone within a 50-miles radius of Saint James Place may submit. BPL will present fully staged readings of the five selected plays. This will be the FIRST theatrical presentation in the much-anticipated performance space at Saint James Place in downtown Great Barrington.

BPL Co-Artistic Director Jim Frangione is excited that "this is the first local playwrights festival of its kind and the venue will be central to its appeal. It will be the first theatrical presentation in the newly renovated, soon-to-be-open Saint James Place, a beautifully restored new theater space about to arrive on the Berkshire landscape. It is with great pride that we've partnered with Saint James Place for the Radius Playwrights Festival. We are eager to continue introducing new work at this exciting new performance destination in South County."

Radius Playwrights Festival invites writers living within 50 miles of Saint James Place in Great Barrington to submit their short play to submit@berkshireplaywrightslab.org by September 30, 2016 at 5pm. To keep it open and accessible, this is a BLIND SUBMISSION process, and there is NO FEE; a panel of experts will read all submissions and choose five plays. Using local actors and directors, Berkshire Playwrights Lab expects the inaugural Radius Playwright Festival to be a fun and festive evening of short plays.

According to Frangione, "with such a wealth of extremely talented local artists, some arriving in a post-9/11 urban exodus, some who make up the ranks of the formidable homegrown cache of local writers, actors, directors and designers, this festival has something for all of us to celebrate."

Frangione continues, "we're looking for plays from playwrights of all ages and political stripe and with so many area colleges within the '50 mile radius' I'm hoping it will bring an exciting diversity of experienced, novice and emerging playwrights to our doorstep for this evening of short plays. BTW-these plays are being selected via a blind submission process, guaranteeing a level playing field for all, regardless of your level of experience or notoriety. Here's what this means to our playwrights: the ONLY thing that matters is the quality of your work!"

Submission Guidelines:

Plays should...

- BE SHORT: Any topic, any style, but keep it to 10-12 minutes (15 minutes max).

- REQUIRE MINIMAL TECH: Lights up, lights down, only the most essential props needed to tell the story.

- BE WRITTEN BY A LOCAL: anyone of any age or experience level who has a residence within a 50-mile radius of Saint James Place.

The playwrights of the five selected shorts must be available to participate in the rehearsal process and be present at the performances at Saint James Place. Rehearsals begin November 7; shows run November 11-13, 2016.

Berkshire Playwrights Lab is the region's only theater exclusively dedicated to the development of new plays. BPL's mission is to provide new and established playwrights with a secure space in which they may develop new work and explore new avenues of creativity. More than 30 short and 35 full-length plays have been presented since 2007. Two plays presented under the BPL banner in recent years were given full productions last summer.

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