O'Neill Center Opens Submissions for 2017 National Playwrights Conference

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center announced today that is now accepting script submissions for the 2017 National Playwrights Conference. Writers may submit their new plays to the O'Neill's Open Submissions Process through Friday, October 14, 2016.

The National Playwrights Conference is the founding program of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and led by NPC Artistic Director Wendy C. Goldberg. The conference supports playwrights during the creation and development of new plays. Writers of selected works will receive a July 2017 residency with a stipend, housing, meals, and transportation to support an intensive rehearsal process and two script-in-hand public readings with a professional cast and creative team.

Submission Details:

- Apply at www.theoneill.org/npc/submission

- Plays of any length or genre are eligible; however, to be included in the conference, the work must remain unproduced through July 31, 2017.

- The submission fee is $35 and covers the cost of the process.

- Early submissions are strongly encouraged.

- No agent is required.

- Both electronic and hard copy applications are accepted.

The O'Neill takes its mission for the discovery of new work and new artists to heart: approximately 1,400 scripts are submitted for consideration each year. Submissions are sent to readers across the country and read blindly, allowing volunteer readers to focus on each writer's voice and story, rather than a recognizable name or previous accomplishment. The large majority of plays developed each summer are drawn from these submissions; in fact, all eight plays developed at the 2016 National Playwrights Conference were found through open submissions. Most years, there might be one or two invitations for established writers or collaborations with other institutions; these help launch conversations with the larger national field.

Artistic Director Wendy C. Goldberg notes, "We have just completed another remarkable summer season, and we look forward to an abundance of O'Neill plays being seen this upcoming season regionally, in New York as well as London. I look forward to building on our immense artistic legacy and helping to nurture the most innovative and fearless storytellers of our time."

During Goldberg's tenure, more than 50 works have gone on to world premiere productions. The 2016-17 theatrical season will see the world premieres of Alligator by Hilary Bettis (NPC '12) at New Georges, All The Roads Home by Jen Silverman (NPC '13) at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Leftovers by Josh Wilder (NPC '15) at Company One Theatre. Other upcoming productions include the Broadway production of Significant Other by Joshua Harmon (NPC '13), the New York Premiere of Basil Kreimendahl's Orange Julius (NPC '12) co-produced by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and Page 73, and regional premieres of Mike Lew's Tiger Style! (NPC '14) at the La Jolla Playhouse and the Huntington Theatre Company. Other acclaimed projects from recent years include I'm Gonna Pray for You So Hard by Halley Feiffer (NPC '14), Bright Half Life by Tanya Barfield (NPC '14), Ugly Lies the Bone by Lindsey Ferrentino (NPC '14), Lost Lake by David Auburn (NPC '13), and The Nether by Jennifer Haley (NPC '11).

The National Playwrights Conference was launched in 1964. Playwrights have shaped the Conference from its very inception. When founder George C. White first gathered a prominent group of emerging writers to discuss their needs, the result was the "O'Neill model" - a place where playwrights can focus entirely on the development of their plays in workshop production without the pressures of commercial endeavors. More than 600 plays have evolved through the National Playwrights Conference. The O'Neill continues to build an endowment to support Open Submissions. Initiated in 2006 with donations made in honor of O'Neill playwright Wendy Wasserstein, interest income helps support the submission and selection process.

The O'Neill will also host three online Q&A sessions about the process on the O'Neill Facebook page:

- Thursday Sep. 22 - 1pm (with playwright Matt Schatz, The Burdens, NPC 2016)

- Sunday Oct. 2 - 4pm (with playwright Mike Lew, Tiger Style!, NPC 2014 & Teenage Dick NPC 2016)

- Tuesday Oct 11 - 6pm (with playwright Tegan McLeod, Girls in Cars Underwater, NPC 2016)

Visit www.theoneill.org/summer-conferences/npc/submission-info for application and guidelines or watch this video. Please direct any questions about the National Playwrights Conference Open Submissions to Anne G. Morgan, Literary Manager & Dramaturg at (860) 443-5378 ext. 227 or email litoffice@theoneill.org.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, founded in 1964 in honor of Eugene O'Neill, four-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and America's only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the O'Neill is the country's preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for the American theater. The O'Neill has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and thousands more emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O'Neill have gone on to full production at other theaters around the world, including Broadway, off-Broadway, and major regional theaters.

O'Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, the Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute - which which offers six credit-earning undergraduate training programs. In addition, the O'Neill owns and operates Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. The O'Neill is the recipient of two Tony Awards.

For more information, visit the O'Neill website, www.theoneill.org, call, or email theaterlives@theoneill.org.

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